


Growing Closer

by comfortwriter28



Series: The Call AU [2]
Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2020-11-08 18:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 39,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20839778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comfortwriter28/pseuds/comfortwriter28
Summary: After the strange week where Justin stays at his house for reasons no one explains to him, Clay finds himself spending time in and out of school with the other boy. Some are positive, some are negative, but all make him want to learn more about the boy.*I changed the timeline for the story to be a year later, so the beginning of their sophomore year meaning characters like Hannah, Jess, and Alex are now attending Liberty and you can expect at least one of them to show up





	1. Affirmation of Friendship

Clay’s nothing less than shocked when Justin texts him two weeks after going home and asks if it’s okay to come over. Sure, they said that they’d hang out when not in school but Clay doubted it would actually happen. He can’t deny that he's a little suspicious when he gets the text but his parents are okay with it, not that he doubted they would be, and he lets Justin know he can come over. 

Almost more surprising is that when Justin comes, it isn’t awkward at all. They shared the same bedroom for a week but before that he doubted Justin knew his name and he hated Justin. That week may have changed their perspectives on each other but it was only as a necessary evil and Clay doubted the friendliness would amount to anything. The following week they talked, but it was for tutoring almost exclusively and not the most personable of interactions.

Clay sort of assumes that Justin is coming over just to make good on their promise because now he has access to his other friends, or maybe just to his friends because Clay isn’t sure exactly where they stand. He expects when Justin comes over that things will be weird but instead when he answers the door, Justin greets him with a goofy grin and says something stupid and very Justin. When Mom and Dad call greetings from the kitchen, Justin replies to them easily and not long after they’re upstairs in his room trying, and failing to get through Mario 64 again.

It’s okay, Justin does most of the talking, updating Clay on literally everything that’s happened in Liberty this week. He isn’t sure if it’s more concerning that Justin knows all of this or that he knows none of it since they were in the same building for the same amount of time. Some of it is kind of funny too, he hears about how Monty got a verbal dressing down from some old lady at Rosy’s and about the antics of the basketball team and how they’re going to drive Mr. Patrick to an early grave for sure.

Still he can’t help that lingering doubt that somehow Justin is here to repay some sort of obligation he felt he owed despite him seeming to be enjoying himself. It keeps him from getting into the conversation and after about a half hour Justin seems to pick up on it.

“I can ugh leave? You don’t seem to be having a very good time. Maybe we can try again another day?” Justin looks confused, sad, and maybe a little...hurt? He can’t really be too sure about that last one though.

“No it’s fine it’s just-” He trails off cause he doesn’t really know how to say what he’s thinking. Usually he has no problem being really blunt but somehow that doesn’t seem like a great idea now.

“Just?” Unfortunately the other boy seems intent on getting an answer so he finally comes up with a way to ask that’s more tactful than he usually would.

“Wouldn’t you rather hang out with the team or Bryce or your real friends?”

Okay maybe the last part was pretty tactless and Justin looks offended by the statement.

“I didn’t realize we weren’t real friends. I guess I’ll just leave and go find mine or maybe I should question if they are too!”

He stands up and Clay realizes he’s put his foot in his mouth big time and tries to back track. “Wait! I just- I mean I thought you were here cause you felt obligated to or I was your second choice or something and I don’t know I just-”

“Clay.” The voice quiets his babbling. “If I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be and if I didn’t think of you as a friend, I wouldn’t want to be here. So let’s get something straight now, are we friends or not?”

His mouth is dry and he wonders how the span of three and a half weeks caused such a shift in their relationship. He likes Justin’s company. The other boy is funny and charming but more than that, he can be shockingly thoughtful. On a particularly rotten day he opened his locker and found a note sitting on the floor where it had obviously fallen after being shoved through the vents at the top. When he opened it he found a simple message scrawled across it: 

_Bad days suck but they get better, and till then you have me_

He had smiled and there hadn’t been a signature but after tutoring for a while the handwriting was as good as Justin name on the bottom. It wasn’t much but that day it was just enough to remind him that bad days came and went and he wasn’t alone. The note is now tucked away safely in his desk drawer.

He’s not sure if it comes down to him or Justin’s jock friends who he’ll choose though and that might be where a lot of the hesitation comes from. He’s steered clear of most of them, Monty especially even though he knows he and Justin aren’t friends but Bryce and the rest too. He doesn’t think he wants to find out who Justin’ll pick.

“We are.” His voice at least is firm and he decides he’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it. He’s sure eventually they will but maybe not and he’s willing to take that chance.

“Good, now c’mon and bring us to a new painting this fucking bunny sucks.”

Clay rolls his eyes and takes the controller. “You’re just doing it wrong.”

“Am not.” 

“Are too.”

“If you’re so smart, you do it.”

“I will.” 

Five minutes later he has the star but Justin looks unimpressed. “I’m glad your strategy finally worked. I was getting bored.”

The little shit. “I got it faster than you would have.”

Justin snorts and Clay brings them to the next area.

They go back and forth for a while and it’s fun. The air between them is cleared and they fall into the routine they had before easily. One of them plays until they die and the other very unhelpfully backseat drives. In Justin’s case he also provides an almost endless stream of gossip about the school mingled with commentary on everything Clay does and it’s funny but he tries to pretend it isn’t, just to be difficult. 

Towards dinner things take an interesting turn when Clay decides to mess with Justin a little more. He isn’t sure why, maybe because he thinks it’ll be funny or maybe because he’s feeling brave in a social situation for once but when he dies he jumps right back into the painting.

Justin’s holding his hand out expectantly and Clay tries to keep a straight face as he ignores it.

“Um Clay? My turn.”

“Nope.” 

“C’mon you died, it’s my turn!”

“No, you’ll just mess this up.” He’s practically grinning from ear to ear now despite trying not to.

“Clay, give me the damn controller.”

“Make me.”

“I will!”

He’s suddenly got Justin pressing into his side, pushing him over and reaching for the controller. Oh shit, somehow he didn’t actually expect Justin to get physical. He wasn’t sure what he did think would happen in hindsight but he finds himself trying to push Justin off while trying to keep Mario out of the lava.

He can’t manage long though, Justin may be smaller than him but he’s both unhindered by a controller and trying to keep Mario alive and a lot more proactive in this silly game. He pushes against Clay from one side, then pulls at him, tries to pin him down and eventually, for the sake of his pride, Clay pushes the controller to the TV and turns his full attention to dealing with the pest.

Unfortunately that seems to work against him, Justin must have been holding back for the sake of the N64 and without it there to get caught up in the fight, he goes all out. The boy is practically an animal and if Clay wasn’t several inches taller and probably at least twenty pounds heavier, the fight would be much more one sided. As it is, they’re rolling around the floor and Justin nearly pins him down a few times but he’s able to squirm out. Partway through he realizes Justin is already putting in a lot more energy than him and decides to wait the boy out.

Even that isn’t easy because as it turns out, Justin has a lot of stamina and even though they’ve been at this for a while, he’s still going strong and Clay might have played himself cause he’s feeling a little winded. He decides that if he doesn’t want the little shit embarrassing him he needs to do something now. With that thought in mind he waits for Justin to come at him again and this time, rather than just struggling with him for a bit and then sending him away, he manages to just his size to wrestle the boy to the floor and sit on him.

Both are breathing a little heavy and Justin’s also laughing in between his pants. The sheer joy on the younger boy’s face is almost absurd and yet it’s so earnest he can’t help but laugh himself. In fact between both of them laughing, he doesn’t hear Dad until he taps on the door. The man has an amused look on his face as he looks over the pair and Clay’s embarrassed at being caught doing something so childish but oddly Dad doesn’t comment and instead asks what Clay assumes was the reason for him coming up here.

“Do you want to stay for dinner Justin?”

“Yeah if that’s-if that’s alright with you.”

“Of course it is, I’ll set an extra place for you.”

He steps back out the door but then leans his head back in. Clay recognizes the devilish look on his face immediately and knows something is up but he isn’t ready for the deep betrayal his father commits when he opens his mouth.

“You know Justin, when he was younger, Clay was quite ticklish. If he’s giving you a problem now you might want to try it.”

“Dad!”

“Oh my timer is going off,” it’s obviously a lie cause Clay can’t hear anything, “dinner will be ready in ten, make sure you wash up!” He sounds way to cheerful, voice sing song as he leaves the room. 

Clay doesn’t have any time to prepare himself before he’s forced to laugh and roll off Justin. The next two minutes he spends rolling around the floor of his own room, being made to laugh by a little gremlin who thinks he’s hot shit. When he stops he smugly tells Clay it’s because he’s a merciful overlord. Really he should consider himself lucky Clay is a superior man here because otherwise he’d be pinned down like the little shit he is and made to know the same torture he just put someone else through. It’s an appealing idea, too bad that would be beneath him.

Still...despite that part, the night is fun, dinner is alright, Justin dazzles his parents with silly stories and pulls him into a few stupid arguments and they all laugh. Later he and Justin return to his room and hang out for another hour before Justin heads home.

As Justin’s leaving, he steps out on the front porch with the other boy and for a moment he tries to think of something perfect to say, something to memorialize this day, the day they finally became friends. Justin has other ideas and rather than even attempting to say anything perfect, he wraps his arms around Clay in a full hug. Arms wrap around Clay’s middle and a body presses against his and he tenses, but only for a second and then returns it. When Justin pulls away a moment later he offers a bright smile, not the Foley smile, a better one, bright and happy and bids him a good night. Clay does the same and the moment feels like magic, if only for a few seconds.

Justin walks down to the sidewalk and turns, a few seconds later he’s out of sight but it’s alright, they’re friends now so this isn’t goodbye forever. That thought is comforting and fills him with a warm feeling that lasts throughout the night and until he goes to bed.


	2. Poker Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Justin shows up when his parents are out and asks to hang out. He really isn’t supposed to but something about how Justin is asking makes him think maybe he should break the rules this time. They end up sitting at the kitchen table with a deck of cards and Justin teaching him to play poker. The topic of a poker face comes up and Clay wonders about Justin’s.

Clay answers the door expecting a delivery, or something like that. Instead he gets Justin, looking winded and cold in a T-shirt and shorts even though it’s only just above fifty today. His mind is sort of blank for a minute but he ends up moving aside for the other boy to step in when a cold breeze makes both of them shiver.

His parents aren’t home and he technically isn’t allowed to have anyone over but Justin looks pretty miserable so he invites the other boy to stay and offers him something warmer to wear and after a trip up to his room and Justin changing, they end up at the kitchen table doing homework. That doesn't last long though because they did a lot of Justin’s during tutoring today and Clay really doesn’t care about the exercises in his French book so after several minutes of Justin sort of sitting at the table watching Clay not doing anything he breaks the silence.

“Do you know how to play poker?”

“What?”

“Po-ker,” He says it slowly like Clay is an idiot. “you know the card game?”

“I know what it is.” 

Justin grins when snapped at and repeats, “Do you know how to play?”

“No.” He hates admitting it, somehow feels embarrassed about it.

Justin quickly dispels that with by laughing, a happy sound, not the mocking one he remembers from before. “It isn’t hard, you got a deck of cards?”

“I think so, give me a sec.” He wanders into the living room and shifts through a few drawers until he finds the deck. When he returns to the kitchen he isn’t surprised to see Justin has cheez its, pretzels, and cookies out and he’s counting out a certain amount of each into two piles.

“Really?”

“Well unless you want to use real money this is what we’re betting with.”

He and Tony are supposed to be going camping next weekend plus _Killer Robot: the Last Bot_ is coming out this Thursday. “Snacks are fine.”

A smirk crosses Justin’s face, “Thought so.” He looks so pleased with himself.

After he finishes measuring out the snacks, he takes the deck of cards from Clay and shuffles them before dealing out two each for both of them. 

“Alright, this is basic Texas Hold’em. Those two cards are yours and these are mine, take a look at them and-”

“I thought we were playing poker?”

“Poker is a couple different games, blackjack, Texas Hold’em, some others. I like this one more for only two people, if we had three or four I’d teach you blackjack which is more fun but too fast for only two players. Anyway, there are two ways to win Texas Hold’em. The first is by having a better hand at the end, we’ll go over them in a minute, the other is by bluffing your opponent into thinking you have a better hand and getting him to give up. There are three rounds of play which you can bet, raise, or fold. Betting is simple, the minimum to play is one cheez it. If you think you have a good hand, you can you can bet more, which is a raise. Three cheez its equal a pretzel and two pretzels are a cookie. If you raise, I have to match you and if I raise then you have to match me or raise again and this goes until we’ve matched each others bet. The other option is to fold, which is losing. Bet if you want to wait and see, raise if you think you have a good hand and want to force me to act, fold if you’ve got shit cards or it’s getting too expensive. Make sense?”

He blinks a few times trying to catch up and then says shakily, “I think so?” It was a good explanation, he’s impressed but it was too much information at once.

Justin laughs again and replies, “We’ll do a practice round but first give me a sec.”

He scribbles something out on the page for a minute and then turns it around to Clay. Thankfully Justin’s handwriting isn’t too bad and he can make out names and then letters.

“These are the hands going from strongest down. At the end of three rounds if neither of us fold, we reveal our two cards and along with the five in the center, try to make one of these. Whose ever is the best wins the pot, all the bets for that round. So let’s start. Make your bet.”

Clay tosses a cheez it on the paper towel in the middle of the table and Justin nods approvingly, then does the same. He flips three cards from the deck in the middle.

“Now look at those cards, plus the two in your hand and see if you’re close to anything on the sheet.”

Clay looks them over, he has a few possibilities but none of them already made. He hesitates and has no idea what a good hand even looks like much less how to decide if he has one.

“Don’t overthink it, this is practice with pretzels, if you lose the stakes aren’t high.”

“That sounds like you want me to lose.”

“Duh, I want to win!”

Fair, he does too and he can’t if he doesn’t keep playing. He tosses a cheez it in while staring Justin down. That only seems to make the other boy happier as he does the same and flips another card.

“And now we go again, unless you want to fold.”

“Keep dreaming.” He tosses another in and Justin does the same before flipping the fifth card.

“Alright now we reveal what we have and find out who won.”

He turns his cards over and reveals a four and an eight while Justin has an ace and a jack. On the table are are two more eights, a four, a six, and a two.

Justin looks it over and then pushes the pot to him. “Congrats Clay, your full house beats my flush.”

He can’t help feeling a little pleased with himself as Justin collects the cards and reshuffles. “Want to go again?”

“Sure. I’ll take more snacks from you.”

Justin chuckles, “What, you win once and you think you’re big shit?”

“Well I beat you.”

“Yea once. Eat your winnings and I’ll show you how a true master plays.”

He rolls his eyes but does as he’s told and they start another round.

After a few rounds he decides the game is fun but more so when he wins. It isn’t that Justin creams him, but he loses more often than not and Justin’s total lack of decency when eating means losing has an extra punishment attached. He also can’t deny that he's getting frustrated by losing so often even if Justin isn’t being an ass about it and apparently it’s showing.

“You need to like, work on your poker face.”

“What?”

“If you want to start winning, you need to work on your bluff. The only games you’ve won are the ones you have a better hand which you can’t rely on getting. You need to work on your poker face if you want to win more. Or don’t cause then I eat more.” He punctuates it with a cheerful smile.

“How do I do that?”

Justin unhelpfully shrugs, “Practice I guess.”

He huffs impatiently, “Well how did you get such a damn good one.”

The Foley smile breaks out on Justin’s face, in all its glory. “Who wouldn’t trust me?”

“Me, how did you develop one? You didn’t just start with a great one so what did you do to get one?”

Justin shrugs, “Actually I kinda did just have a good one. Bryce taught me how to play when we were younger and he didn’t beat me consistently for like a year.”

Clay’s about to reply when he hears a car door slam. He doesn’t even need to tell Justin, the boy’s already sliding the cards into their box which he passes to Clay before hastily adding the remaining cookies to the package they came from and grabbing his backpack and the package and putting one in the cabinet and the other on his back. He slides out the back door and closes it just as the front opens. Clay’s already put the cheez its back and put the pretzels on one napkin and by the time Mom makes her way into the kitchen nothing looks too out of place.

They make small talk, she reminds him that they’re on their own for dinner tonight and they debate the pros and cons of pizza versus Chinese food. They eventually settle on Chinese because it’ll be easier to hide from Dad who makes fun of them. He claims if he didn’t live there, Mom and him would live off of take out which may be true but that doesn’t mean they want to make it easy for him to tease them.

The conversation lapses after that and he has a lot of time to think because even though he’s supposed to be doing his homework, he still really doesn’t want to. His mind travels back to Justin. If a poker face is used for lying than having a good one means you lie a lot right? So why would Justin have been good at it when he started playing poker unless he was a good liar before that? And if that’s the case why would he be a good lair? It could be an easy enough explanation, Clay lies to his parents and he assumes most kids do at some point or another and it could be as easy as that.

It could be, but if it was then why did Justin smile the way he did? Clay’s come to the conclusion in the time that he’s spent with Justin that the Foley smile serves only two purposes, the first is to draw in girls and the second is to deflect. He’s seen a hundred other smiles from the boy and he likes all of them better but it’s the Foley one that he sees in public the most. Justin smiles a lot but Clay doesn’t ever think he’s seen the Foley smile reach his eyes while the others always do. It makes him uncomfortable and he doesn’t know why but he doesn’t like that smile. Anytime he sees it he can’t help but feel Justin is hiding something. It’s the smile he uses when he explains the reason he’s walking funny is cause of a fight, the one he uses when he’s pretending he’s dumber than he is, and the one he uses around the other jocks at the school. And today he’s found a new use for it, it’s Justin’s poker face. 

He wonders why it bothers him so much but it does. After all, if Justin has secrets, it’s none of his business and anyway, everyone does. If he chooses to hide them behind a smile, well it works so who is he to question. The fact that it feels so disingenuous is cause lying probably should. 

He tries to push the thoughts away but after he shifts positions, the cards in his pocket feel heavier and asks, “Hey Mom, what does it mean if someone has a good poker face?”

She frowns and he can see her thinking. “Why do you ask?” She sounds curious and he knows she’s trying to think of an answer as much as figure out the point of an odd question. 

“We were talking about it in class today.”

“Well, having a good poker face could mean a lot of things. I have one for when I go in front of the court and parents have them for dealing with kids.”

“Does having one mean the person a good liar?”

“No. Why would you ask that? What class were you talking about this?” She seems defensive and he realizes he just accused her of being a liar. Time to back track a bit.

“Lit, we were talking about Gatsby and honesty and someone brought up poker faces and how they mean someone is used to lying.”

“I suppose in that context it can but when I use it for court it’s less about lying since that’s illegal and more about keeping my thoughts a secret, the same for parents. It’s not that we’re lying as much as concealing.”

“So hiding something which is a form of lying.”

She shakes her head and sighs. “I guess in a way it is. I don’t remember Gatsby playing poker but he’s absolutely a less than truthful character and is certainly hiding things.”

“Yea, I guess he is. Thanks Mom.” Clay wonders if the ‘he’ that he’s talking about is Justin or Gatsby.

“No problem sweetie.”

The question bothers him all night and when he climbs into Tony’s car the next morning, asks the older boy about it. Of course the reply he gets is characteristically unhelpful, but this time more teasing that cryptic.

“Thinking of taking up gambling?”

“No, why would you-never mind. Do you think having a good poker face means someone is good at lying?”

“I can’t say I’ve thought too much about it but yes, I suppose it would. Why?” 

“It’s just- well Justin came over yesterday and taught me Texas Hold’em but his poker face seems too good and he said it was always good so that mean he’s always been good at lying but why would he be so good at it?”

“So you are taking up gambling?” Tony looks amused, he’s just frustrated.

“Focus.”

Tony sighs. “Listen Clay, Justin’s secrets are his business but he comes from my part of town so it isn’t hard to imagine he has some stuff he’d want to lie about.”

“Do you think it’s worth worrying about?”

“If I told you no would you listen to me?”

“Probably not.”

Tony pulls the car into a spot and turns it off. “Listen, I know you’re worried about Justin,” Clay immediately opens his mouth to protest but Tony gives him a look and quiets him and continues, “even if you don’t know that yet. Here’s my advice. Keep being his friend and wait. When he’s ready, he’ll tell you but if you try to push him, you may never get anywhere. Be patient, these kinds of things don’t happen overnight.”

It wasn’t very comforting but Tony made a lot of sense. He couldn’t make Justin tell him anything until he was ready, all he could do was wait until then. The thought doesn’t do much to brighten his day and it’s a rather dismal one overall. He’s busy worrying about Justin for most of it and when he sees Justin the other boy makes it worse because he’s gotten into another fight it seems. He reminds himself of what Tony said and it doesn’t help, but neither does worrying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter, hopefully this one gets the same positive response it's predecessor did! This is going to be the beginning of Clay sort of questioning things about Justin and not be able to find answers so readily. Also on the list that will be covered in later chapters are Justin's affinity for physical touch, several chapters dealing with Amber in a few different ways, Justin getting into fights and more.
> 
> I have a couple options for what comes next but I'm not totally sure which one I'll go for if you feel strongly about any of these let me know and I'll see if it works. You can probably look for the update Monday or Tuesday.
> 
> As always happy reading and let me know what you think in the comments below!


	3. Comfort Seeker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fire prevention assembly takes an interesting turn when Clay is sandwiched between Hannah and Justin. It’s isn’t bad though, he’s just going to have to deal with Hannah giving him looks.

For the life of him, Clay can’t understand why they have to have an assembly on fire prevention every year when they’re all teenagers and know better than to play with matches. Actually...do they all know that? He assumes most of them do but people like Monty go to this school so maybe not. Then again, this is the same presentation they’ve been getting since like fifth grade and before that they got the same lecture just dumbed down and with a less graphic video so if someone doesn’t know it by now, another few years of this won’t help. 

The craziest part is that apparently it isn’t just this district because Hannah takes one look at the man in the front who’s wearing his fireman’s uniform and says, “Is this the fire assembly?” 

He nods. 

“The same one that we get every year?”

“Yep.”

“So when this starts he’s going to tell us about his job, then tell us about some of the fire’s he’s put out and something about the strategies they use, then put on all his gear and talk to us in a bad Darth Vader voice like we’re little kids, remind us to change the batteries in our smoke alarms, and then finally make us watch the same stupid video they do every year? With the two sisters and the candle?”

“Wow, why are we even here if Hannah can do the presentation on her own?” The statement is broken off by a yawn and Justin appears next to him, apparently in time to catch enough of Hannah’s description to know exactly what she’s talking about. They both greet the other boy but he thinks something is wrong right away. Justin’s posture is rigid and stiff like he’s trying to move as little as possible but he reminds Clay that Mr. Patrick has been running them pretty hard in practice as preparation for an upcoming game that Justin says is supposed to be brutal. That could easily explain the stiffness but not the exhaustion that seems to hang about the other boy. His eyes have dark smudges under them like bruises and even his smile is tired.

He wonders if he should ask but Principal Bolan comes on the mic and encourages them to sit down so the program can begin and not long after that they manage to get seats in the back corner and as long as they keep their voices down, they can basically talk all they want without anyone noticing which is something the other two capitalize on. He feels that the fire fighter went through all the trouble of coming here and deserves to be listened too but the pair he’s between clearly share no such feelings.

In fact, Hannah and Justin get along extremely well despite whatever history they have together and they end up joking and talking easily across him while his quiet protests only seem to fuel them. At first they’re talking about nothing in particular but after Clay tries to quiet them a few times, it shifts to them trading stories about his ‘neurotic’ behaviour. 

Hannah shares stories about him at work and his apparently ‘awkward’ interactions with customers and coworkers. It’s not his fault that given the demographic of the theater for _Fifty Shades Darker_ it could have been called _Fifty Shades Older_ or that the cups don’t look right when stacked with the extra large in the middle instead of the furthest left. He feels it’s a cheap shot for her to reveal his magic popcorn mix since he swore her to secrecy and no matter what she or anyone else says, it’s perfect. Someone who can’t appreciate slightly stale popcorn with two boxes of milk duds, a box of dots, and two boxes of M&Ms shouldn’t be allowed to hold opinions and if that means he’s the only one who is, well serves them right. Justin apparently is a part of this list and obviously fights very hard to contain his disgust.

The other boy meanwhile thinks it’s funny to describe Clay’s facial expressions during tutoring. Apparently Justin finds these very amusing because he goes so far as to try imitating a few of them for Hannah. She thinks they’re so funny that she has to clamp both hands over her face to stifle her giggles. They’re just children because it isn’t remotely entertaining and he tells them as much.

Obviously they disagree with that and think they’re hilarious but despite this, Justin’s fighting to stay awake despite participating and laughing. Hannah, and even Clay once or twice, have to prompt him to finish a sentence or thought and this is while the lights are on. Once they go off for the awful video, it’s a losing battle. He’s sound asleep in minutes and that isn’t bad exactly except that apparently Clay’s shoulder is a good pillow, or at least the one he decides to use. His head finds it very quickly after nodding off and Clay feels blood rush to his face, he’s saved by the darkness which prevents Hannah from seeing because otherwise he’d definitely be hearing about it.

As it is, Hannah seems a little disappointed when Justin stops replying but she obviously figured out he fell asleep and seems to agree with Clay’s unspoken assessment that if he needed to sleep this much, they might as well let him. Instead they begin a conversation and he has no problem talking through the movie but at the same time his mind is jumping through hoops trying to figure out if Justin’s okay or not.

At first he tried to figure out if there even is a reason he should be worried. Justin could just be tired, everyone has bad nights and have problems staying up some days. It’s a simple enough reason and so incredibly believable Clay can almost convince himself not to think anymore. In fact he would, except that based on what Mr. Patrick has been putting the team through, Justin should be sleeping like a baby. It doesn’t happen often but sometimes if he’s in the school late, usually for tutoring...well no always for tutoring cause he isn’t in any clubs, he waits by the gym for Justin to be done when they have plans to hang out. He’s only done it twice so far but one of those times was yesterday.

He could tell right away that it had been a hard practice because the team was still in the locker room and as they emerged one by one it was a slow stumbling gait to them. Justin and Zach had come out last by a few minutes and Justin looked basically asleep with Zach looking only a little more awake. Thankfully the taller boy was carefully guiding Justin who looked ready to fall over. Their plans had been cancelled but the problem with believing it was totally related to practice was that Justin was going home to sleep, and thankfully got a ride with Zach cause otherwise Clay wasn’t sure he would have trusted the boy to get back. If he had gone home and slept all day and then all night there’s no way he’s still tired and that must have meant Justin didn’t get to sleep when he got home despite being so close to it. 

That also meant Justin hadn’t been able to sleep but the problem was, he’s seen Justin fall asleep sitting up, through construction noise, and of course through the worry that he must have been dealing with when he stayed at Clay’s back in September. Nothing much seemed to be able to keep him awake so what changed this time that did?

“Helmet? Earth to Helmet? Is anyone there?”

He’s pulled from his musing by Hannah who’s looking at him in amusement. At least he thinks so, her face is sort of a patchy mix orange and black from the fire and smoke on screen and it isn’t helping his ability to discern what she’s thinking.

“Sorry, what were you saying?” He knows his face is bright red now from Hannah as well as Justin, he hopes she can’t really see either so at least they’re even.

Her smile makes him think maybe he’s alright but he can never be too sure with Hannah. 

“I was asking when you and Justin became friends? I didn’t think you could stand him.”

He almost gets defensive about the question and then remembers there isn’t a reason for him to. He doesn’t really want to tell her the truth though. It’s been sort of an unspoken pact between them to continue keeping that quiet and as far as he knows the only other person who knows is still Tony and he was before the agreement.

“I started tutoring him and I guess it just sort of happened.”

She nods and then hesitates before saying, “I’m happy.”

He thinks maybe she wants to stay more; it sounds like words were caught in her throat and never made it out. That only makes him more curious.

“What?” When she hesitates he prompts, “It sounded like you had more to say.”

Silence for a moment and then, “Nothing, I’m just-Justin’s a nice guy even if he seems pretty shallow. I’m glad someone else knows.”

“Oh.” Not what he was expecting at all. For some reason he thought she was about to tell him something profound.

They lapse into silence for a moment but Hannah breaks it pretty quickly and he can hear the mischief in her voice when she speaks.

“So is he normally this cuddly with you or is it a special occasion.”

He stammers and tries to come up with a reply but she continues.

“He’s had his head on your shoulder since he fell asleep and it’s really cute but I didn’t peg you as someone who would let him.”

He moves to look at her better but a soft noise of protest from Justin stops him. It’s embarrassing but the thought of Justin making that noise again stops him from trying. “He’s like a stupid puppy or something, it’s cruel not too let him.”

Hannah giggles quietly at the comment and continues, “Then again, I didn’t peg him for a comfort seeker either.”

“A what?”

She looks at him with a combination of bemused and amused. “A comfort seeker, someone who seeks comfort?”

He opens his mouth but the more he thinks about it, Justin is really tactile...at least when they’re outside school. He usually greets Clay with a one armed hug, fist bump, or some other physical way. When sitting, he has the tendency to be closer than necessary, knees touching under a table, shoulders rubbing next to each other, always just a little closer than necessary, never too close for comfort...maybe a little awkward in the beginning but he’s always chalked it Justin being weird which Justin is. 

Wrestling...Justin loves it. Actually only sometimes and it’s hard to tell when he wants to and when he doesn’t. Clay usually doesn't instigate since the first one, which he didn’t lose no matter what the moron claims, but sometimes he does and it isn’t always met with a positive response. He’s given up trying to read Justin on this one and lets the other boy start it. When in the mood, Justin will pin him down, or try, and often they end up rolling around the floor. Clay claims he lets it happen because it’s the only exercise he gets but maybe he does enjoy it a little, maybe. Justin knowing he’s ticklish is at best annoying because the other boy doesn't _always_ resort to cheating so it’s usually a non-consequence. 

Then there are hugs...Justin gives great ones, there’s no way around it. Not the stupid one armed things, real hugs. Justin hugs like he hasn’t seen Clay in years or like this is the last time they’ll ever see each other. They’re desperate, happy, longing, all at once. His arms wrapped tightly around Clay’s chest and with his nose smashed into Clay’s chest or neck. They’re never very long, when Clay isn’t ready for them he sometimes doesn't get to hug back before Justin pulls away. He sort of looks forward to them but if asked he thinks he would deny it. 

Could all of those gestures be Justin seeking comfort? He’s not sure he believes it’s a conscious thing, Justin doesn’t seem to be aware of some of it but maybe subconsciously? 

At length he replies, “I guess that makes two of us, I didn’t expect him to be one either. Guess there’s a lot about him I don’t expect.”

Hannah smiles but in the dim light he can’t tell how happy it is. “I’m sure that’s true for most people.”

They don’t get to talk about it further but that’s cause the movies is finishing by this point and he gently nudges Justin awake. The boy seems tired still but maybe just groggy tired instead of actually tired like he was before. When they leave the assembly to start classes, Justin looks more awake and as far as Clay is concerned, that’s the important part. Hannah giving him smirks when she passes from now on is just something he’s going to have to live with...at least he knows what these smirks mean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we go, another chapter. This is the first time I've written Hannah, real Hannah at least and honestly it didn't go as bad as I thought it might but she's still a hard character for me to deal with so I hope I did her justice. In any case she was fun to use as a semi-outside observer since Justin's testimony I think makes it canon she knew about the abuse but how much about it she knows isn't exactly clear. She may suspect some of the reason behind Justin's 'comfort seeking' but she isn't going to tell anyone.
> 
> Next chapter should be out Friday or Saturday and will have Zach make his first big appearance.
> 
> As always, happy reading and let me know what you think in the comments!


	4. Reading, Writing, and Fisticuffs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Justin’s not into it for tutoring and Clay wants to know why.

Clay can’t deny that he's a little frustrated Justin’s late. Five minutes have already passed and he hasn’t come yet and Clay knows his class started something new in algebra so they need as much time as possible to go over it. Well, probably need as much time as possible. The problem is, Justin isn’t like anyone he’s ever tutored before. Most people only need a little help, to be reminded once in a while the follow order of operations or which formula to use. Others are like Jeff who need more help, they actually need him to sit down and outline an essay with him, check that his ideas make sense and flow and check each paragraph after it’s written one at a time for grammar and spelling and to make sure the ideas they drafted together are communicated in the paper.

Justin is both and neither, there are some days he sits down and barely needs Clay, usually not for algebra but it happens often enough with lit and bio that it’s worth mentioning. Then there are days where he’s got most of it, can do almost all of the problem, has most of the definition, the ideas are all there but didn’t come out right on paper, things like that. These are easy and they can usually bang out a few subjects in one period and have time at the end and in between for Justin to sidetrack him, something the moron seems to enjoy doing. He’ll ask something about the topic he knows will set Clay off, or more generally he’ll ask if he saw something on TV, tell him a story about practice or something that totally isn’t funny, Clay only laughs to humor him. Other days, he’s obviously playing catch up, it’s like Clay is teaching the stuff for the first time. These are hard because tutoring is one thing but actually teaching is another. He does his best though and bites his tongue if only because Justin usually works harder these days.

When Justin finally makes his appearance all of his frustration goes away as soon as he sees the other boy. Justin’s steps are slow and stiff and Clay can tell something’s hurt but he isn’t sure what. That alarms him into getting up and awkwardly helping the other boy to sit down at which point he can get a better look at Justin and likes what he sees even less. Justin’s breaths are shallow as if breathing too deep is painful, Clay thinks he can see where he didn’t blend the concealer enough on his face and even though Justin’s bag is very light, he’s still obviously pained to be carrying it...and putting on an act that he isn’t.

“What happened?” He sounds horrified but...he should be right?

Justin manages a smile, a megawatt, full blown, Foley smile that is almost free of pain and Clay hates it. “I got into a fight, no big deal.” He leaves out the ‘again’ but Clay can still hear it. It’s been like this for two weeks and apparently not getting any better.

“No big- you can barely walk!”

“It’s not that bad.” He’s still playing it off but Clay thinks maybe he sounds a little uncomfortable.

“Looks that bad from over here.”

Justin sort of shrugs and pulls his books out and if Clay’s ever seen a clearer ‘this conversation is over’ gesture, he doesn’t remember it. He lets it go for the moment because they have a lot to do and unfortunately he basically has to teach Justin the whole lesson. It’s frustrating and they don’t make a lot of progress because of the younger boy. He’s both really not getting it and also obviously in discomfort and Clay wants to be sympathetic but its hard when Justin gets into fights so casually and never seems to win them. He passes him aspirin at some point and that seems to help a little because they move slightly faster after that but it’s still a snail’s pace.

Worse, Justin picks up on his aggravation and seems to shrink in on himself which makes Clay feel even worse and also angrier at the same time and by the time he let’s Justin go, he has no more confidence in Justin’s skills than he did at the beginning of the period. To his surprise, Zach shows up near the end and casually takes a seat with them. When they’re done, he picks up Justin’s bag for him and the younger boy rolls his eyes but lets it happen.

The rest of the week doesn’t get much better. Justin manages to look worse Wednesday and Clay doesn’t even see him Tuesday or Thursday. Friday he waits twenty minutes during their regular period and Justin doesn’t show. Finally someone does show up, a huge, hulking shadow stretches over the table and he looks up to see Zach looking down at him.

“Justin’s out.”

His voice isn’t exactly mean but Clay thinks there’s something there he’s missing. He’s kind of curious about it and asks, “Is he sick?”

He gets a noncommittal shrug from the other boy who replies, “He texted me to tell you he’s out but he didn’t say why?”

“You didn’t ask?”

Zach bristles at the accusation and he realizes that he sounded pretty combative when he said but also realizes he doesn’t necessarily feel bad. Justin’s best friend is Bryce, it isn’t a secret at all and yet when Justin talks about Bryce it’s strange, sort of awkward. He says a lot about ‘when they were younger’ and ‘when they were kids’ and these stories he tends to relate in a particular way, with heavy adoration and obviously reminiscent. They tend to involve Bryce teaching him something, it’s where he apparently learned cooking, swimming, and how to play video games and it isn’t hard for Clay to tell the memories mean a lot to Justin even if Bryce is a bit of a sore spot between them. When he tells recent stories about the boy, it’s different. They don’t often feature Justin learning anything and the tone of them is different, bittersweet almost. It’s makes an interesting dynamic when Justin is telling a funny story but when Bryce’s name comes up, Justin gets a distant look in his eyes and Clay can only really identify it as longing that lasts for less than a second and sometimes it’s only in retrospect that he realizes the second ever happened.

Zach in Justin’s stories is the polar opposite in every conceivable way. They don’t have a long history together for Justin to reference and it doesn’t seem like Justin's learned anything from the other boy outside of basketball. Despite this, the look of adoration is pretty often there and he has a feeling the the stories he gets aren’t always complete, a mention of the hot dogs in the park in the middle of a story about a Saturday he spent with Zach shouldn’t inspire a look of total love unless there’s something else there. When he tries to make light of it he can convince himself the love is for the hot dogs and not Zach but when he’s honest with himself, he knows it’s for the boy and not the lunch.

All of this leads him to think that Justin and Zach are close beyond just being casual friends and teammates, that there might be a deeper connection and he assumed Zach was-more interested in Justin? He would have assumed if Zach got a text from his friend about being absent he’d ask after him? He’s seen the pair interact before and Zach often seems defensive of Justin, sort of looming next to the boy, ready to be there if he needs him. He’s seen them come out of the locker room long after everyone else following a practice with Zach sometimes subtly and sometimes less than so, supporting Justin or carrying his bag.

These sorts of things made him think maybe Zach was not as bad as the other jocks, that maybe he actually cared about Justin more than skin deep but apparently he’s wrong or so he thinks until he gets a cool, “I did, he hasn’t replied.”

He feels his face burn and Zach is turning to go when he calls out, “Wait-” 

Zach turns and obliges him.

“If- when he replies, if he’s sick, tell him I hope he feels better?”

He has Justin’s number and both can, and will, text him that anyway but somehow that seems to be the right thing to say because Zach’s stance softens. “Sure. Hey Clay? Justin’s likes you, talks about you pretty highly, almost like he does Bryce. I know you don’t like the jocks at Liberty and I know we gave you no reason to, but I’m glad-I’m glad you and Justin get along. He needs all the friends he can get.”

The comment is cryptic and sort of ominous despite the softness of Zach’s voice and fondness in his eyes and leaves him feeling a little sick. He calls out for the other boy not to go but before he does the other boy says simply. “Sorry, I’m supposed to be in the bathroom right now and if I don’t get back soon they’ll send a rescue party.” He’s gone before Clay can collect his thoughts. 

He sends Justin a casual text later, or what he hopes is a causal one. He just asks if he’s feeling okay and if not he hopes he gets better soon because their tutoring period was pretty lonely. He half expects a joking reply back, either being teased for texting in class when he always tells Justin he shouldn’t, or a quip about how Clay’s concern is being bored in school. Instead he gets silence and the message remains delivered but unread until Saturday morning when he gets a short reply that he’s sick but thanks for asking.

When he sees Justin Monday it’s like it’s no big deal and he can’t prove it isn’t so he reluctantly lets it go after Justin calls him out for staring. The boy hangs out at his house twice that week and amid the fun he almost forgets the worry and foreboding of the week before but can’t fully. He does manage to bury it pretty deep, preferring to think simpler, happier thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating a little earlier today than usual cause I may be busy tonight. Hope you all enjoy, this is Zach's first appearance but not his last! He also gets the distinction of having his other chapter right now being the lightest hearted chapters in the fic so far. Unfortunately, this chapter isn't a very cheerful chapter but an important one so hopefully you can all excuse the less than cheerful ending.
> 
> Next chapter should be out Tuesday, it's going to be Matt's first chapter so you'll have to let me know if you like it cause I have two more chapters, one Matt and one Lainie chapter written. I'm also considering a Tony chapter but not sure how strongly I feel about it.
> 
> As always happy reading and let me know what you think in the comments!


	5. Unplanned Sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt takes an evening to contemplate the strange nature of his family’s relationship with Justin Foley one night. He doesn’t think he finds an answer, only more questions that alone are easily explained but together make him uncomfortable.

Matt feels his eyes droop and he knows he should just go to bed but he really doesn’t want to yet. Lainie is at a conference, a once or twice a year thing that she does but he hates it, the bed feels too big when she isn’t there, too empty. Of course he’ll never tell her because either she would feel guilty going or even worse, stay back with him and be unhappy. No, he’s a grown man, he can sleep alone for a few nights each year and this time he has the perfect excuse for his strategy.

Usually, the nights she’s out, he does what he’s doing now, putting off going to sleep as long as he can so that when he gets into bed, he can just pass out and sleep till his alarm goes off. This time he has the perfect excuse for doing it, or so he tells himself, since he’s waiting for Justin to leave in case he needs a ride home. It’s almost eleven though and he’s wondering if he should kick the boy out because he really should have left by now. He could put it off, but if he does any longer he won’t feel safe driving so he pulls himself to his feet and climbs the stairs. Clay’s door is open and he steps in expecting to see the boys up watching a movie because of how quiet it is. Instead he finds Clay not in the room and Justin sound asleep on the couch snoring softly, a blanket is tossed over him and somewhat tucked around his body. 

He hears water running in the bathroom and crosses the hall to find Clay brushing his teeth. They make eye contact in the mirror and Clay spits the toothpaste out as Matt starts speaking.

“How long has he been like that?”

“About two hours. I didn’t really want to wake him up, I thought he’d get up on his own but he hasn’t.”

Matt frowns at looks at his son skeptically. “He just fell asleep?” 

The boy shrugs, “You saw him at dinner, he almost ended up asleep in his plate. When we came back up he tried to stay awake but obviously that didn’t work.”

The frown doesn’t go away as he thinks about how Justin acted at dinner and how strange it was for the usually talkative boy to have been so quiet.

“Should we wake him up now?” Clay sounds confused and not very happy, Matt can sympathize, he really doesn’t want to make this decision. He moves out of the way so Clay can cross the hall and he finds himself looking at Justin in the dim room.

“No, if he’s tired enough to fall asleep here he might as well stay here. Where’s his phone?”

Clay moves to the table and produces the device, thankfully it’s unlocked or doesn’t have a lock screen and he can get right in. He scrolls through contacts until he finds ‘Mom’ and calls. He expects a panicked woman demanding to know where her son is, or an annoyed woman asking what good story he has for missing curfew. Instead he gets a voicemail, not even one with a message saying whose it is. 

He starts typing out a text instead expecting a call back before he’s done but it doesn’t come. He sends a simple message of who’s sending the text, where Justin’s staying and why. Then he calls again and this time leaves a voicemail. 

Clay watches unimpressed and comments, “Tony says Justin’s mom is a legend where they live.”

“What does that mean?” As a professor, he's used to not understanding what his students are talking about but it rarely happens with Clay. His son usually doesn’t keep up on the lingo of the day, well unless it’s to tell him no one uses the word lingo anymore, so this is a surprise to him but it pales in comparison to the ominous answer Clay gives to his inquiry.

“Nothing good. He didn’t say anything else but he doesn't think very highly of her.”

“Has he met her?” He can’t think of any reason one high school boy would meet another’s mother and spend enough time with the woman to have an opinion of her.

Clay shrugs. “Like I said, he wouldn’t say anything else. I’ll ask him tomorrow if I can.” He pauses for a moment and then adds, “We’re not telling Mom about this right?”

He snorts, too tired and busy thinking about other things to be more dignified. “Of course not, unless you want to know exactly how many laws we’re breaking by doing this and what the consequences are.”

Clay makes a face. “No, thanks.” 

“I didn’t think so and neither do I, I’m going to bed. If he wakes up at some point and wants to go home, come get me and we’ll drive him back.”

Clay nods and they say goodnight, it’s one of the rare night Clay lets him pat his head before bed.

He brushes his teeth and changes all while trying his best to think as little as possible but that fails spectacularly because there’s so much to question. It could be because he’s tired and not thinking straight but he can’t find a simple reason any mother, any parent actually, would be fine not knowing where their child is so late at night. He tries to find that simple reason but just can’t. 

It isn’t his only question either. Justin is normally full of energy but today he just wasn’t. He hadn’t really noticed at dinner as much but now that he thinks about it, Clay was right. He had thought maybe Justin didn’t like what he made and that would be a first but he was too preoccupied with an email chain from work to really be paying attention as much as he should have.

Then there was that comment from Tony who himself was already difficult. He and Clay have been friends for years, since middle school and Lainie still doesn’t really like him. She claims the Padillas are thugs and gangsters and never liked Clay being around Tony or his family because she was afraid the would be a bad influence on Clay. Matt never minded him, the dark eyed boy was a good friend to Clay, pushed him outside his comfort zones with physical activities like hiking and climbing and social interactions and more importantly, always seemed to have Clay’s back and have his best interest in mind. 

His son, his baby boy could be difficult more often than not; headstrong, stubborn, and extremely judgmental, making friends didn’t always come naturally to him and yet despite all of this, he and Tony developed a friendship quickly despite being a year apart and seemingly nothing in common. Sixth and seventh grades might have been the happiest he had seen Clay in a long time and it wasn’t uncommon for him to go out and do things with Tony. It was a relief for him to know his boy wasn’t alone and he knows eighth grade was hard on Clay because even though Tony hung around even more often outside of school, he thinks Clay missed a friendly face in the building during the day.

Lainie tolerated Tony but didn’t like him, she would write off a comment by him in a heartbeat but he couldn’t. He had no idea what it meant that ‘she’s a legend’ and the only thing he did know was Clay didn’t think it was good and he didn’t think Tony thought it was good either. He racked his tired brain for what that comment could mean to a couple of high school boys but he couldn’t find any answer that wasn’t bad in some way.

He should let the whole thing go, try to get some sleep but he can’t, part of him is worried and it won’t be quiet. Justin is a friend of his son’s and that’s as far as it should go, anything more could be improper and yet he can’t deny that he has a fondness for the boy. The week he spent with them was interesting and sort of stressful but Justin had been nothing but pleasant. Something about his demeanor had carved a place for him in Matt’s heart because it was obvious that somewhere he had picked up ideas about manliness that Matt himself had suffered for as a teen and felt the need to put up a front to project conformity to them. He had pretended to not be afraid when he sat with Lainie at the kitchen table and they talked in very broad, uncertain terms about his future but Matt could tell he was. No teen should have to deal with that, much less feel the need to ‘fine’ with it.

Of course the memory that sticks out the most is his first time meeting Justin in a holding cell at the courthouse. The door hadn’t been locked but the image of a very small boy behind the bars with a huge bruise on his face had pained him, it still does. Even more so when the boy looked at him with an expression he can now only describe as weariness hidden behind a scowl that he probably intended to look tough. In reality just showed insecurities that ‘men’ didn’t have. He had tried to make conversation but the boy’s answers were clipped and short, they bordered on rude until Lainie arrived and then they became polite and quiet but stayed short. He had known then that Justin Foley wasn’t all he seemed to be and there was more to his story than what Lainie told him. 

What she had told him was that the police had been called to his house for a noise complaint and had arrested a man in the front who was screaming and waving a beer bottle around. Inside they had found Justin and had to remove him when the boy’s mother never came home. After that she mentioned he had spent a night in a holding cell while they tried to find the woman but an incident caused him to be removed to a juvenile hall during the nights with visits to the courtroom during the day where he most of his time was divided between a cell like some criminal or in meeting rooms with Lainie. He spent a few days like this while Lainie tried to help sort his case out and eventually got him released into their care so he wouldn’t be stuck in the hall. 

The story alone made him wonder about a lot of things but Lainie stuck firm to her oath and didn’t reveal anything, even after the matter was settled. She never said where the bruise came from but he suspected it had something to do with the ‘incident’ that got him moved out of the holding cell but he wonders why the boy was ever put in one in the first place, surely CPS should have been involved and prevented that. He still doesn’t know why Justin stayed with them or why his mother was so unfindable. It bothers him not knowing but he wonders if it bothers Lainie more knowing.

The day Justin went home, or rather the last moments that the boy was technically in their custody stick out to him too. A car pulled up and honked the horn, he opened the door and the passenger side window rolled down. A woman stuck her head out and simply yelled his name. He called back to her that he would be down in a minute. The woman huffed and demanded he be told to hurry up. By this point Lainie was with him at the door and passed the message up to Justin but Matt had a feeling that she was either distinctly unimpressed by the woman or recognized her from somewhere because everything about her body language indicated something along those lines.

When Justin had come down, followed by Clay, he had gone out but there wasn’t a reunion of any kind then. He sort of assumed afterwards the family were more private people than that but given his attempts to reach her tonight, he could be wrong. 

Pushing the negative thoughts and the questions they create away, he focuses on positive ones instead. Justin had been good for Clay. He and Lainie had worried at first because of Clay’s reaction to their announcement that Justin was staying but the pair had surprisingly warmed up to each other despite whatever past history he knew was there. It makes him happy even now when he comes home and finds Justin in the house because he continues to bring out a brighter side of Clay that he doesn’t see very often. It makes sense that Clay acts different around his friends than his parents but sometimes he longs to hear Clay laugh, to know he’s happy. And yet it’s something neither he nor Lainie seem to be able to do. Justin manages it easily though which he supposes is natural.

On a lighter note, he’s decided Justin may be his favorite person in the world to cook for because he approaches everything in front of him with enthusiasm and gusto, Justin even complimented his quiche! It may have been bad that night, and every other night he’s made it, but Justin didn’t complain or make faces, Clay, or eat as little of it as humanly possible, or schedule late days when he plans to make it, Lainie. Instead the boy has sat down and eaten two slices of it when Matt himself had only managed one!

And yet, maybe that pointed at something darker too. A lot of food went missing while Justin was staying with them and he and Lainie never found out where it went but both suspected Justin. They weren’t mad and didn’t really want to make conflict since it wasn’t necessary but it was a lot of food for one person to eat.

He drifts off into an unpleasant sleep and he has to be out early the next day so he doesn't get a chance to speak with Justin. He does stick his head into the room to check on them before he leaves and finds them as he left last night, Clay in his bed and Justin on the couch. In the weak light they both look young and the image stays with him all day, both comforting and uncomfortable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome to another chapter! This is the first of three parent chapters that'll be scattered throughout and we get to see some of Matt's thoughts on Justin and Tony, and a few digs at Lainie and Clay. Sorry for four heavy chapters in a row but there's going to be a lot of those in this. Things will eventually get better, but not in this part.
> 
> Speaking of this part though you may have noticed that I've set the max number of chapter to 15 today. I think I finally decided on an endgame to this part as a pseudo cliff hanger that'll lead right into part 3. I have all but two of the remaining chapter written as well so after those two are done, I can start in part 3 which hopefully will be a little lighter than this one...hopefully.
> 
> Next chapter should be Friday or Saturday and will return to Clay and Jeff will make an appearance. It should also be one of the brighter chapters in this part so that might be something to look forward to.
> 
> Happy reading and let me know in the comments what you think, you guys are great and thank you so much for all of your support in the form of follows, kudos, and comments!


	6. Team Spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clay never thought he’s end up at any Liberty sports event, or any sports event at all but somehow Justin convinces him to give up a perfectly good Saturday of doing nothing to sit on comfortable bleachers surrounded by people he doesn't know, wishing he were dead. At least Justin is enjoying himself.

He steps into the crowded gym and is amazed by how different it looks for a game as opposed to on a regular day. Mostly it’s the volume of people that alarms him, the bleachers are packed already and there’s still a line of people waiting to get in behind him. He hates himself for being here, for supporting the thing he still sees as the greatest evil in the school but he couldn’t not come.

Justin invited personally. It had been-one hell of a day and less than a week ago so easy to remember in all it’s terrible glory. Bryce had been an ass, so had Monty. He hadn’t done nearly as well on a test as he should have and Jeff had failed one of his despite a lot of tutoring and a long night cram session the night before. All in all it had been a miserable day and when he had seen Justin at his locker he knew something else was coming because Justin never met him there, even if Tony was taking both of them to Clay’s place. Clay might be offended if Justin didn’t hang around him other times and places at school. Their lockers were simply on opposite sides of the building and they never had a reason to meet at each others which just meant Justin being there was all the more significant. 

The other boy seemed really nervous, leaning against Clay’s locker and shifting weight from one foot to another and glancing one way and then another. When Clay approached he moved off the locker but didn’t speak until Clay prompted him too.

When he did it was awkward and not very Justin-like. “I um-I was wondering if you’d maybe want to come to the game on Saturday.” Clay opened his mouth to reply when Justin quickly added, “I know you don’t like sports and all but like, I bought the ticket so it won’t cost you anything!”

After that he stood there and Clay felt weird. The boy was wringing his hands and looked painfully hopeful even though he was obviously trying to convince himself not to be. It didn’t seem right, the expression on his face, not then, and still doesn’t now. Justin was the star player of the team, or one of them from what he’s heard. Apparently Liberty’s basketball team hasn’t ever been as good as many of its other teams but Justin and Zach have changed that this year, or something like that. If that was true, he should have people lining up to come watch him and not need Clay to come.

He remembers accepting just because he didn’t think he could stand the crushing look of disappointment he feared on the boy’s face if he said no. Instead he got something arguably worse, Justin’s whole face lit up like it was the happiest moment of his entire life even though it shouldn’t have been. He gave Clay the ticket right there and cheerfully rattled off information about the game while Clay had collected books from his locker. The time and place, how early he should come if he wanted to get good snacks (it was a very Justin thing to say), who from the team was playing, who they were playing, the other team’s strengths and what they planned to do to counter them, the other team’s weaknesses and how they planned to capitalize on them. Most of it meant nothing to him, he had no idea what the boy was talking about but he feigned enthusiasm and Justin seemed to thrive off of it. It made him sick then and it still does now. 

And that’s how he found himself here still looking for a seat and wishing Tony had come with him but by the time he asked, the other boy already had plans. Now he’s going to sit here alone and hate existence for however long this nonsense lasts. He takes a seat on the bleachers and waits for the match to start. It isn’t fair that he should have to wait for something he doesn’t even want to do in the first place. His moping is cut short by a hand ruffling his hair and a body plops down next to him.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you at a game Clay. What got you here?”

Jeff, at least he won’t be alone. His hand moves to try fixing his hair and he gives the older boy an annoyed look. “Justin asked me to come.”

Jeff looks surprised and then a smirk comes over his face.

Clay rolls his eyes. “He had a ticket and asked me to come so I did.”

The idiot probably doesn’t believe him but the smirk vanishes. Unfortunately it’s replaced by a look of mild indignance. “How come you never come to my games?”

“Because baseball is boring.” He’s not going to lie for Jeff’s feelings.

“And you like watching basketball?”

“I’ll let you know after this game.”

Jeff lets it go and they move on to casual conversation about nothing until the players came out. He cynically watches all the pomp and circumstance of five boys coming out on either side and lining up while the band played an upbeat arrangement while around him, everyone lost their minds. Justin is fourth on the team to come out and looks comically undersized between Zach and some other kid. He looks even more so when they shake hands with the other team and all of them tower over him. A man with a mic moves to the center of the gym and lead the opening ceremony and during it, he watches Justin anxiously scanned the crowd. When he looks towards Clay, he waves and Justin’s face shifts from anxious to elated. 

He stops looking after finding Clay even though didn’t find anyone else.

The detail doesn’t sit right with him but he ignores it in favor of watching the game start. When they players move to the center and take up positions, he nudges Jeff and mumbles, “I thought these things started with a coin flip.”

He sees Jeff grin but the boy doesn’t tease him and instead actually explains, “It depends on the sport, baseball and football need a coin flip but basketball is different. The ref is going to toss the ball up and Zach and the guy across from him are going to jump up after it and tip the ball to their team so a flip isn’t necessary.”

It astounds him how well Jeff is at explaining all of this and when everything happens exactly as Jeff says, he wonders if maybe when he has questions he should start bringing them here instead of to Tony. Throughout the game the other boy explains the basic rules to him over the noise and between learning the game via Jeff and trying to watch it, the first quarter evaporates as does most of the second. By the beginning of the third, most of his attention is on the game and not Jeff explaining it so he starts to notice things. The first is Justin. Obviously he knew the other boy was playing but he starts to notice how he moves, how fast he is, the way he dribbles the ball, the way he seems to be where he’s needed when he’s needed. He can’t deny he’s impressed and according to his timing, Justin holds the ball, or has ‘possession’ of it, more than anyone else. He finds himself sort of liking it but just because the other thing he notices is how much Justin is enjoying it.

He also notices something strange. Any time one of the Tigers scores, there’s a roar from the bleacher and the cheerleaders do a stupid chant he can’t understand but for four of the five players, the loudest sign of approval comes from a family in the bleachers. A small Asian girl stands up and celebrates every time Zach scores and doesn’t pretend to look sorry when a stern looking woman scolds her and for the other boys it’s similar, mothers, fathers, and siblings standing up to celebrate their son’s achievements over everyone else. One family has a big banner they spread out for ‘Manuel’, whoever he is, and another family has noise makers that they use for someone else. It’s over the top, stupid and kind of obnoxious and even the other team has some support in the form of family and cheerleaders from their school that is equally so. 

Justin however, only gets the cheerleaders and generic celebration from the Liberty supporters in the gym, which is most of them but still. There isn’t anyone here to support him and him alone. He scans the crowd and finally nudges Jeff, “Is Bryce here?”

If the older boy is, Clay can’t see him and he isn’t celebrating Justin especially loud.

“I don’t think so, I didn’t see him. He doesn’t always come to these anyway.

“Oh.”

They sort of lapse into silence for a few minutes before Clay asks, “Does Justin’s family come to these?”

“I’ve never seen anyone come for him.” Jeff’s reply is simple and very complicated at the same time.

After that he makes extra noise when Justin scores but he isn’t sure the other boy notices because Clay’s pretty sure he’s drowned out despite his best efforts. 

In the last minutes of play, things take a turn for rougher when someone knocks Justin down. Jeff cringes and mumbles that it looked bad. Two of the other Liberty players appear between the person who knocked him down but it’s Zach is at his side almost immediately helping him up while giving the person who knocked him over a dark look. Justin seems fine though and play resumes with Zach oddly sticking a little closer to Justin from then on.

The game ends with a Liberty victory and he’s ready to walk over and congratulate Justin when Jeff stops him. He explains that only family really talk to players right after a game and true to his words, the families make their way onto the court to exchange a few brief words with the players. No one comes for Justin and he ends up spending those moments with Mr. Patrick before they enter back into the locker room. People start filing out but he and Jeff stay until the boys re-emerge ten minutes later.

The team comes one at a time, Zach gives him and Jeff a nod on his way out looking happy to see them. Justin is the last to come out and his expression is complicated. Clay thinks a mix of hope, worry, and maybe a bit of fear. When he locks eyes with Clay though, it vanishes and is replaced with the goofiest grin he thinks he’s ever seen on the boy’s face which then disappears and is replaced with a frown as he joins them.

“What did you think?” His brow is furrowed and he looks worried again.

“It was interesting.” It wasn’t a bad time but that’s cause he had Jeff to keep him company and explain the game to him but he’s not sure he would call it fun exactly.

Justin seems to interpret what he’s saying unfortunately and his face falls a little. Clay curses himself a little because of all the times to read between the lines now is not one of the ones he hoped for.

“I’d come again though.” He hates himself for even saying it and Jeff looks a little surprised by the declaration. “Maybe if I see more games it’ll make better sense and be more interesting.”

It’s sort of a shitty way to phrase it but Justin’s whole face lights up again and it fair that he can to go between crushingly disappointed and lighting up a room so fast. “Really! Our next game is away but in like three weeks we have another one here! I’ll let you know what day it is ahead of time.”

He looks so excited that Clay can’t even fully say he regrets his decision as much as he may want to. He can’t hang around too much longer though, he promised Dad he’d be home to help him with something and needs to actually do that. Justin thankfully doesn’t seem disappointed that he’s leaving and so Clay doesn’t feel guilty about it. 

He passes Mr. Patrick on his way out and the man stops him. “I never thought I’d see you at one of these games, Mr. Jensen.”

He sounds curious and nothing more. “Justin asked me to come, he gave me a ticket too so I really didn’t have much reason not to.” The part about the ticket is important. He doesn’t want to give the impression he came so easily after just being asked because...well he might have said some very unkind things about sports in history. 

The man stiffens for a moment but then says, “Well I’m glad you did. Might we be seeing more of you in the future?”

He opens his mouth to say no but decides if he _does_ come in the future, he’ll look like an ass for denying it now. “We’ll see.”

The man nods his head approvingly and they exchange goodbyes.

He thinks he may come...the tickets are only five bucks and Justin looked really happy to see him. It bothers him, the whole cheering thing. It’s stupid but it does. He has a few weeks to decide anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a new chapter! This is the first, but not the last, to feature Jeff in this part. It also deals with a very important aspect fo Justin's life, being basketball and thankfully for me, didn't involve any research into the sport.
> 
> Next chapter should be Tuesday and...well it's going to be kind of gross. If you're paranoid about the cleanliness of restaurants, it's not for you.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy and happy reading!


	7. Legendary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony drags him out to lunch on a Saturday. The other boy claims it’s so he can get some peace and quiet but somehow Clay doubts it, Tony wouldn’t go through this length for such a thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this chapter is kind of gross and not for the weak stomached and those with a fear of eating at restaurants

He has plans to do a glorious nothing this Saturday since that’s what they’re made for but those plans come to an abrupt end when Tony appears on his porch and tells him to get his sneakers on because they’re going to lunch. It’s phrased suspiciously as a command and looking at the other boy’s face, he knows he’s not getting out of it so he complies. 

The ride over is mostly silent, at least from Tony since he refuses to answer literally any question in any useful way. 

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

“Okay then, why are we going?”

“There’s something you need to see there.”

And on and on. 

It turns out they actually are going to lunch which sort of surprises him but Tony pulls into a spot and leads him into a diner. They’re all the way downtown, not too far from Tony’s house or the Padilla family’s garage. They’re also in the area Tony told him never to come through. Instead of north along Avenues A or B, they’re south along the boulevard and the older boy has told him that there is no reason for him to ever come this way. Clay once asked Mom about Tony’s advice but all he got was ‘it’s good advice’. Now in high school, he’s learned this part of town is a hot spot for drugs and violence and if he goes to visit Tony, he stays away from here.

Based on what he knows, he doesn’t have high hopes for this place and upon entering those are confirmed. The diner looks like it’s breaking several health codes just by existing, the floors need a good mopping, and so do the walls, he doesn't look up, afraid of what he’ll find, the tables are a mess. He watches a worker come out of the bathroom with dry hands and start moving plates and really the only thing this place has going for it is that he can’t see into the kitchen. Despite all this, it’s packed with men wearing hard hats and tool belts. They aren’t huge, rolling masses of muscle like the men who do construction on the buildings uptown. These men are leaner and they look mean.

He’s ready to leave, can’t think of anything being here that he might need to see but Tony guides him to a booth in the back and warns him in a low voice to not to make eye contact with no one as he does. 

Clay doesn’t need to be told twice.

At the table, Tony makes him take the seat against the wall, affording him a view of the entire restaurant and unfortunately through the one window into the kitchen. It’s something he would just as happily trade for anything else, especially the blank wall behind him Tony’s facing. He just looks at the other boy but his ever helpful friend doesn’t offer any explanation. They wait five minutes before the waitress comes and it’s only then that Clay thinks he understands.

The woman who takes their orders is a thin, dark haired woman with bags under her eyes and an expression that looks like it might be sour if that wasn’t too much work. She has dark shadows under her eyes, her uniform is rumpled and Clay thinks she smells faintly of weed and something else. Her name tag reads “Amber Foley”. His immediate shock is overcome when he thinks back to the woman he saw pick Justin up from his house. Granted he had only glimpsed her around Justin and though a partly opened car window and she had looked bad. Somehow the woman in front of him is less impressive and looks even worse.

“Keep gawking and I’ll start charging.”

If it was a joke that would have been bad enough but he's pretty sure she's serious and that makes everything worse. He stutters trying to figure out how to respond to that but Tony cuts in. 

“Two cokes and we’ll split the club sandwich.”

He opens his mouth to protest but Tony gives him a warning look and he decides against it.

She seems to notice Tony for the first time and looks startled then nervous and then scribbles something down in her pad and walks away. It’s disturbing that even such a basic action seems to require a lot of effort for her. Her steps are slow and clumsy and she ignores two different tables trying to flag her down. 

He looks back at Tony who’s watching his face.

“Why?” He hates that his voice cracks and that he wishes the cokes were here because his mouth is really dry.

“You’ve been talking almost nonstop about that woman for weeks now. I thought it was time.”

He’s numbed into silence by what he watched until his brain finally catches up. “I do not talk about her _that_ much and if you knew where she was why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Tony raises an eyebrow, he looks distinctly unimpressed. “I didn’t want to come here and I really didn’t want you to see this but it’s the only way I’ll ever get any peace.”

He gives the other boy a dirty look and goes back to watching the woman. It’s not that he exactly wants too but it’s sort of like a car crash, impossible _not_ to look at. Somehow the more he sees, the less impressed he is and he already didn’t think a lot of her. Everything takes her a long time to do, she treats walking with plates from the counter to a table as a marathon and leaves him feeling exhausted from watching. When she interacts with the customers she’s at best bored or maybe tired and at worst passive aggressive and occasionally with some more lewd flirting mixed in. 

They’re the exception, drinks and food wait for her time but as soon as she sees their cokes, she brings them over and even fumbles to get straws out for them, something no one else has gotten since he started watching. She even attempts a smile, directed at Tony who nods to her politely but says nothing. She seems to take that as a dismissal and leaves. With anyone else she would have dumped the cans on the table and walked away, seemingly to avoid being asked for straws. It becomes worse when Tony stops him from using the straw she gave him and pulls out two of his own, passing one to Clay. There are implications but he tries not to follow them.

Apparently to make up for getting their drinks fast, getting their sandwich takes forever. Mostly it’s because at one point, she outright disappears off the floor. Since she’s the only waitress, this causes problems for everyone and several customers just leave money on the table and walk out, most don’t even look surprised. He asks Tony what he thinks she’s doing and his reply is cryptic, unhelpful, and foreboding; the Tony special.

“She works all day today Clay, it’s break time.” 

The words themselves are innocent enough but the tone he takes is what makes Clay uncomfortable. Partly mocking, partly annoyed, and very disgusted.

“It’s been twenty minutes.” He doesn’t know why he says it because Tony knows but it turns out the boy has another pearl of wisdom.

“It takes a long time for her to finish.”

Again the tone is the bad part because this time he just sounds disgusted. 

When she reappears her uniform is more wrinkled and a man is trailing behind her buttoning his shirt back up. She seems happier now and peppier somehow but when she sees their sandwich waiting that disappears and she picks it up from the counter it had been waiting on for ten minutes, and brings it to them. On the way over she seems nervous and when she brings it to them she offers an apology and waits a moment. The stench coming off of her is worse than before; the weed smell is stronger but the something else is too and now isn’t too hard to name. His stomach does a flip and he had been planning on asking for another coke but now he knows he doesn’t want one. Tony again nods and she scampers away, it’s the fastest he’s seen her move and only she benefits from it.

They eat and Clay can safely say it’s probably the worst sandwich he’s ever had. The bread is dry and obviously getting stale, the turkey and ham are both flavorless, the mayo is the predominant and really only taste. He lifts the bread up and the lettuce is browning while the tomato looks slimy. He picks both off.

“Don’t look and it’ll be easier.”

Helpful but it’s exactly what Tony’s doing and he follows suit. Easier is an accurate description, the food gets eaten but it’s awful and by the end he’s literally choking it down. Now he understands why Tony said they’d split, he knows he wouldn’t have been able to eat a full one of that and from the look on Tony’s face, neither would he. 

After finishing they begin the long process of waiting for the check which seems to take longer only because she’s still ‘catching up’ from the work she missed earlier, getting checks to tables, clearing dishes, and bringing meals. He’s able to see more of Amber’s behavior but he’s less and less happy with what he finds. She’s rude to an old man who’s clearly very slow, nastily tells a pregnant woman who stops in to rest that she has to buy something or get out, and generally is slow and bad at her work. 

Worse, she gets into what might be considered a fight with a young couple that sit down a few booths away from them. Clay can’t help but think they look like every image of people going nowhere fast he’s ever seen. Both are covered in tattoos and piercings, his earlobes hang down to his shoulders while her crop top lets everyone know her belly button is pierced and her shorts don’t leave much to the imagination. Apparently Amber isn’t impressed either but any effort to make that known beyond wrinkling her nose is too much. Unfortunately the boyfriend sees it and they end up in a shouting match. Sort of at least. He yells at Amber who replies rudely in her nasally, bored tone. They go back and forth before it’s resolved with the pair ordering. Clay isn’t sure how they get to that point despite watching and listening to the whole thing. What makes the scene the worst though, is he watches their order get put on the counter and Amber doesn’t bring it over. That doesn’t surprise him in the least, he expects her to let it sit for a long time and get to it eventually, instead he watches her go over and spit in the food. She serves it to them with a smile, the first one he’s seen on her face excluding her coming off her ‘break’ and they don’t even look at it before starting to eat.

His stomach turns and Tony raises an eyebrow but says nothing, flagging her down instead. She locks eyes with Clay and her face pales. She rushes to the window and brings the check. Tony takes it and pays before Clay can protest and as he hands the money to her and tells her to keep the change.

They’re out of the restaurant less than a minute later and Clay finds a garbage can to heave his lunch into. Tony rubs his back while he does and mumbles soothing things in Spanish. At the car, his friend produces a water bottle that he gladly accepts to rinse his mouth. They don’t speak till Tony’s pulled out and only then because the other boy prompts him.

“Well?”

Well what exactly? This is the woman he’s been hearing rumors about, did he really expect to find anything different? Did he think she’d be better, or worse, than the rumors implied or had he thought the rumors were totally fabricated? He hoped for the last one at least but now that hope is dead in the water.

“Clay?”

He just shakes his head, unable to muster a proper reply and thankfully Tony doesn’t push any farther, a warm hand does rest on the back of his neck for the whole car ride. He doesn’t feel anything for a long time. Tony drops him off and then stays under the pretense of watching a movie but Clay has a feeling he’s really just there so Clay has company and he’s sort of happy to not be alone. He doesn’t bother pretending to pay attention to what’s on the screen even though Tony picked one of his favorites. It isn’t until halfway through the movie that he finally manages to make some sense about what happened and once he does he has a question.

“You told me she was a legend, what did you mean by that?”

Tony’s eyes remain trained on the screen and he doubts he’ll get an answer this time when Tony’s always refused to answer the same question in the past. He’s surprised this time that he does.

“I think you know what I mean now.”

It isn’t every helpful and yet at the same time it says way too much.

“Is it for Justin?” He thinks maybe he sounds naive and he doesn’t like it. Tony looks at him this time and the dark eyes have a certain solemn quality to them that do more to answer his question than anything else. Still Tony tries his best.

“I don’t know Amber Foley personally so I can't say for sure but I think it’s very easy for us to judge people without knowing them.”

It’s a true enough statement but Clay has a feeling that at least with Amber, Tony doesn't practice what he preaches, that’s fine, he doesn't like this woman at all. Things get a little easier after that but he’s glad Tony stays as long as he does even if they don’t talk about anything important because once the other boy leaves, his thoughts return to the diner and the woman who works there. He doesn’t see any redeeming quality Amber has and the thought that she’s responsible for Justin explains too many things. Justin’s happy to have people come to his games to support him because she sure as hell doesn’t. Actually, maybe he’s happy to have people near him in general because he doubts she pays much attention to him at all. He gets into so many fights because obviously she's not around to stop him. He can literally not come home at night because she doesn’t seem to care enough to notice.

When he sees Justin in school on Monday he sort of wants to walk up and hug him and say something sappy and gross about never leaving him alone but he can’t work up the courage to. Instead he settles for sitting a little closer to the other boy during tutoring and Justin gives him a dopey, happy smile. He looks pretty good for once and Clay feels a moment of hope that’s dashed when Justin launches into a story about Bryce and a party. Of course he looks better after not being home at all during the weekend, no home means no Amber to let him get hurt or ignore him. He laughs along though and pretends nothing is wrong, Justin’s in a good mood, might as well enjoy it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this, congrats on making it to the end of the most disgusting thing I've ever written. That said I had this idea long before I started part two and it was one of the first ones I wrote because it just seemed like a good way to communicate how people see Amber. Tony is here because someone has to be in order for Clay to learn about her but I feel I should help him out a bit. When I first drafted this, Tony came off as callous, only bringing Clay so he can get "some peace and quiet" from Clay pestering him with questions about Amber. I want to make clear that even though he knew where Amber worked before this, he didn't bring Clay earlier because he honestly never wanted Clay to see what Amber was really like because he knows it will upset Clay. He doesn't want to say as much though because the hard head won't take kindly to it even though Tony is trying to spare Clay a look at the big, bad world.
> 
> In any case, if you're still interested in reading after this chapter the next one is due out Friday or Saturday and will be Lainie's chapter...also less disgusting I promise. I'm really excited about this one because I think it came out pretty good.
> 
> As always happy reading and let me know what you think in the comments below, and again I apologize if none of you can eat out for a while after this, trust me I have no plans to either anytime soon.


	8. Arrested

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lainie is a professional and not too many things can ruffle her on the job but a call from Justin at the police station, that’ll do it.

Lainie takes pride in what she does, she’s a lawyer and a good one at that. She studied hard, made it through law school while she was pregnant with Clay and the stress of the two was awful but she wouldn’t give either up for anything. She’s still working hard too, every day making her way up through the ranks in the firm she’s in, going to court, working with the other lawyers, and impressing the bosses with her dedication and resourcefulness.

Part of the skills she developed for doing all of this is maintaining a certain calm that is expected of her as a professional and maybe more importantly, is required in the courtroom. If the other lawyer saw any hint of worry or uncertainty, it could be disastrous. This part though, comes to her naturally, being able to hide behind a mask, push uncertainty and doubt down. She prepares meticulously for everything, studying and restudying the case, tries to figure out what the other side would say, anything that could, and often does, give her an edge. She isn’t prone to panic either. When something unexpected comes up, she adapts her plans and works with it or around it as necessary. Surprises are part of life and adapting to them, especially in her profession, is important.

Today though seems intent on testing her on all those claims. The morning went well enough, she had to work Sonya which is always interesting but the woman is impressive if nothing else and she’s much better than some of the other people in the firm. Most of the afternoon has been fine too but now she finds herself on the phone and can already feel a headache coming.

“Should I put him through, Mrs. Jensen?”

Carrie is one of the secretaries for the firm a cheerful old lady who’s miserable to talk to on the phone because she can’t hear anything. Apparently she has a call from a boy at the police station for her. She doesn’t know what’s coming but she expects something to do with Clay’s relationship with Tony Padilla has finally catching up to him.

“Yes, put it though.”

She hears the lines changing and then hears a voice.

“Mrs. Jensen?”

Hopeful and not daring to hope, shy, embarrassed, worried. Justin Foley, even over the phone she can tell it’s him. That said the station needs new phones, there's far too much distortion on here.

“Justin is that you?”

“Yeah I-” He trails off and she can hear the uncertainty in his voice.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need a lawyer. I got arrested and I didn’t do it but they won’t believe me. I’m sorry I didn’t know who else to call and then I remembered seeing your firm’s number on my paperwork and I wasn’t even sure I was remembering it right and then the woman wanted to know who I was and I don’t think she could hear me very well and-myfiveminutesisalmostupbecauseshekeptmakingmerepeatmynameandcouldn’thearitandI’mjustreallysorrybut-”

“Justin, breathe.” She didn’t know a person could talk that fast and she lives with Clay. The difference is Clay usually talks this fast when he’s irritated and Justin sounds close to hyperventilating which Clay also does and she really needs Justin not to do now. “I need you to relax and do what they tell you to and not fight them I can be there in twenty minutes will you be okay until then?”

Silence and she’s about to repeat her question until she hears a very quiet and painfully heartfelt ‘thank you’ from the other end. She doesn’t know why he’s thanking her, she hasn’t done anything yet but maybe it’s preemptive. They had better have a good reason to be arresting that boy. If they didn’t find him holding a bloody knife with a stabbing victim next to him, she’s going to tear them apart.

“Anytime Justin, we’ll work this out, will you be alright until I get there?” She hopes so cause short of continuing this call from her cellphone, she really doesn’t have any other plans other than staying on the line and putting off actually getting there. She will if he needs her to, but she can sort this out better from there.

“Yea-yeah I’ll be fine.” She’s not certain that’s true but trusting him lets her leave so she will. 

“Okay remember, do what they tell you and don’t fight with them, I’ll be there soon.”

She gets another thank you and then the line goes dead. 

She packs her bag, grabs her phone, and is out the door in record time, stops at the front desk to let them know she has an emergency and makes it to the station in exactly eighteen minutes and takes the remaining two as an opportunity to steady herself. At least that’s the plan but her mind ends up wandering, something it never does on the job. The station isn’t an unfamiliar building to her but only for work and the last time she was here was also for Justin. As part of the firm's partnership with the city, they were occasionally called on to do public defender work when not enough were available in exchange with exclusive right to defend the municipality. It’s one of the most important partnerships the firm has because the city pays extremely well and rarely needs them but the public defender work is a chore at best, there are only so many petty crimes and small time criminal cases a person can do before they get jaded. The good news is that with so many people working at the firm, getting called only happens once or twice a year.

When the firm was asked to take case 461-73, she didn’t think anything of it and hoped it would go to someone else. She was next on the rotation for it but she was in the middle of researching 556-93, a big case against the city’s local clinic for malpractice that promised a greater reward. 

She had gotten 461-73 and resented the case for it because Sonya got 556-93 and a pay raise when she won it, using the information Lainie had worked hard to gather. 

She’s ashamed of it now, being so callous. At the time she consoled herself by saying she didn’t know a child was involved but was that an excuse? Child or not, someone needed to be represented in court and she had been unwilling because money was better doing something else.

Shaking those thoughts aside, she climbs the steps and three minutes later she’s being led to a cell that houses Justin Foley. He looks as small and scared as he did the first time she saw him and when he looks up and sees her, she offers a smile that he tries to return. His face is bruised and the cuffs are obviously hurting him.

“Why is he in handcuffs in a cell?” Full lawyer mode, time for her to figure this out and get him home.

“Ma’am he was breaking into a house we had to arrest him.”

“It’s my house!”

She ignores Justin for a moment size up the cop, he’s young and inexperienced, she can work with that but she has a feeling it’s the reason Justin is in a cell.

“And you have such little faith in your cells that he needs to be in handcuffs while in one?”

He flushes red and squirms a little. Perfect.

“I’m here now and if I’m going to talk to my client, I’m going to do so in one of the meeting rooms, I trust that’s acceptable.”

Her tone makes it clear she isn’t asking a question and three minutes later, she’s seated across from Justin in one of the stations meeting rooms.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” Gentle, she already believes that whatever this is, Justin hasn’t done anything wrong.

“I-”

“I told you Ma’am, he was caught breaking in.”

Justin opens his mouth to protest but she beats him to it.

“I asked my client not you and I don’t need you in here, wait outside and I will get you when I need you.”

He slinks out looking embarrassed, as he should. She turns back to Justin and he looks more worried now. That’s not right.

“I-you keep calling me your client but I don’t have any money for you.”

His gaze is focused at the table now, she can see the red flush to his cheeks.

Her hand finds his on the table and she gives a gentle squeeze. “I needed to get rid of him and ‘client’ sounds more professional than, ‘my son’s friend’, I wouldn’t accept any money for this if you tried to pay me.” He meets her eyes and still doesn't look sure. She continues anyway, “Besides, I have a feeling once you tell me what happened I’ll get this all sorted out pretty easily, that man doesn’t seem all that smart.” That gets a weak smile out of Justin. “So why don’t you tell me what happened, he says he caught you breaking in and you say it’s your house?”

He looks embarrassed again but more so a rueful embarrassment at being caught doing something dumb as opposed to the deep shame that came with the money talk.

“I um, I got locked out and was trying to pick the lock to the front door and got caught by the one patrol in the entire neighborhood. They didn’t believe that I lived there, I guess I can’t really blame them.”

“They didn’t believe you?”

“Well...I wasn’t exactly locked out. I had my keys but umm, my mom changed the locks and forgot to leave the back open.”

“And you didn’t try breaking in through the back?” They both looked surprised at the statement, she really shouldn’t give advice on breaking in while also giving him legal advice in a police station because he’s been arrested for doing exactly that.

“The lock back there is too rusted to get a paperclip into.”

She nods, “Continue.”

“There isn’t much more to say, they found my keys and arrested me and I tried to call Mom but she wasn’t picking up and well you were like the only other person I could think of.” He ducks his head at the last part, clearly embarrassed.

“Well I’m glad you did. Let’s get the officer back in here and call the school. They’ll verify your address and that’ll be the end of this.”

“Really?” His eyes are wide as if he doesn’t dare to believe it could be that easy.

“Mhm, the address they caught you at should be in the police report and as long as it’s the one they read off from you records we should be fine. You haven’t moved since the beginning of the year right?”

He shakes his head.

“Good that should settle this.”

She calls the officer in and then they call the school and everything works out exactly as it should. The officer still seems reluctant to believe it all but since the school confirmed it, he has no choice and removes the cuffs, they’ve bruised Justin’s wrists and when he massages them to return feeling, they bleed a little where the metal rubbed the skin raw. The officer doesn’t look the least bit apologetic. She’s furious but right now she has more important things to do and they all focus around Justin. 

“Let’s go get your things and then I’m hungry, how does pizza sound?”

The look of pure relief on the boy’s face is shattered when the officer cuts in. 

“I can't just let you take him, he’s dangerous and-!”

“And?”

“You’re a lady.”

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before says, “Thank you for noticing I am in fact a woman. I’m also more than capable of taking one of my son’s friends out for dinner and bringing him home without a man around to protect me. I wouldn’t even let my husband do that.”

The officer turns an impressive shade of purple and she feels Justin tug on her sleeve a bit and make a distressed noise but the man explodes before she can turn and leave.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I know his type, there are dozens of them and all the same, good for nothing and going nowhere. It may have been his house this time but I’m sure in a few years I’ll catch him doing it to another house if not something worse. We’ll see who’s so smart then! And do you even know who his mother is? That woman couldn’t make anything worthwhile if she tried!

Lainie clicks her tongue and turns around. “We’re leaving, this is on tape, expect a formal complaint in a few days.”

She nudges Justin and they leave, collecting his stuff at the desk from ‘evidence’ on the way out and then they get in her car. The ride is silent and she hates it because he stares out the window and looks so sad it hurts her. He doesn’t meet her eyes and doesn’t say anything.

When they get there, not even the streaming pie between them seems to perk him up even though she knows food is the fastest way to this boy’s heart so she takes a deep breath before broaching the delicate conversation.

“You know nothing he said was true right? You’re a good kid and parents don’t determine who their children are.”

He looks up at her for the first time and his eyes are full of doubt. He doesn’t say anything, it’s a silent challenge and she’s sort of at a loss for what the right answer is.

“He doesn’t know you and I do. You’re kind, funny, and not a criminal.” She wishes she could say more but the more she wants to say, the more hollow it sounds to her. He smiles though, shyly and maybe not believing her, but hopeful. She can work with that.

Pizza ends up taking over an hour because once that conversation is taken care of, Justin opens up and cheerfully begins regaling her with stories and eventually they aren’t eating as much as laughing about what the other is saying. She does have to go back to work soon though and offers him a ride back. He accepts and she waits until she sees him get in the door catching a glimpse of Amber as she does.

The whole ride back she’s plagued with thoughts of the woman. Amber was one of her first clients in the same way she ended up with Justin’s case except while Justin needed a lawyer for legal advice, she needed one for defense. It was a miserable case, drunken disorderly and assault of an officer. The best she could do was get Amber off with less time in jail than she probably deserved because the woman was a mess and very known to the system. Lainie and Matt had been newly wed, in a few months she would be pregnant with Clay. Not long after that if her dates are right, Amber would be pregnant with Justin.

Even though she firmly believes what she told Justin about parents not determining who their kids are, it astounds her that a woman like Amber could have a kid like Justin. She knows personality isn’t hereditary, Clay is all the proof of that she’ll ever need, but bad parents do tend to raise bad children. She’s seen the system long enough to know how it works and she doesn’t even see the worst parts of it too often. Amber is a bad person, she was fifteen or so years ago when she defended the woman and Lainie doubts that’s changed. That Justin is so remarkable says far more about him than it does about Amber. She hopes he and Clay stay friends, he’s good for Clay of course and that’s a big part of it but she can’t deny wanting Justin where she keep an eye on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the next chapter! This is Lainie's and when I had the idea, I didn't expect to like the chapter as much as I ended up doing so, I'm pretty proud of it. The scene at the end with the officer and then the one in the pizzeria where hard to get work the way I wanted them too but it was a good challenge and Lainie ended up being easier to write than I thought she would.
> 
> You may have noticed I increased the number of chapters to 16, there're two reasons for that, the first is I had an idea for a chapter similar to this one but with Tony and decided to write it, and the rest is to put off deciding how I want to tackle part 3. I have a lot of ideas but sorting through them all to find the one that makes the most sense is harder than I thought! Thankfully I have time before that and the next chapter should be Tuesday.
> 
> Happy reading and let me know what you think in the comments below!


	9. Tutor Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clay is asked to spend more time tutoring Justin. He doesn’t mind but scheduling complications mean he has to combine days with someone else he tutors and the results predictably are interesting.

Clay’s happy Justin is the only one waiting for him when he gets to the library because he isn’t sure he’s fully ready for what he signed up to do. Well that and Justin looks confused and he still needs to explain and it’ll save the younger boy some embarrassment if no one else hears. He takes a seat but before he can say anything, Justin speaks.

“So?”

Clay knows exactly what he means because it’s Thursday and they don’t usually meet Thursday for tutoring, or they didn’t use to.

“Yeah so, um Mrs. Pack and Mr. Oresen think you can benefit from more tutoring and between our schedules this is the only day that works unless you want to lose Saturdays you don’t have away games.”

Okay, maybe there was a more tactful way of saying that because Justin face falls and he winces. 

“But I’m doing better.” The disappointment on his face makes Clay feel guilty even though it really isn’t fair that another teenaged boy can make him feel like such an ass.

“You’re doing a lot better. I promise, they noticed, both of them, even commented on it to me and that’s why they want this. Trust me, they don’t ask for bad students to have more time with a tutor. This is a good thing.”

It’s also sort of a lie, Justin was doing better but now seems to be back sliding and it’s a pretty common theme in his grades. It confuses Clay that he can do so well on an essay about _The Death of a Salesman_ but then fail a vocabulary test, or pass trig but not be able to calculate slope. It doesn’t make sense to him and Justin isn’t even consistent in being able to pass the hard stuff and fail the easy parts, he’s sort of all over, it varies from week to week. His lit and chem teachers did ask him to spend more time tutoring Justin because they thought it would help but saying he’s doing ‘a lot better’ is a bit of a stretch.

The disappointment on the other boy’s face lessens a little but he doesn't look very convinced, too bad Clay’s time to reassure him is over because he feels a giant hand on his head ruffling his hair and hears a cheerful greeting from the newcomer.

“Clay, Justin good to see you but umm what are you doing here?”

Jeff plops down in the seat across from Justin and next to Clay who grumbles, “Don’t plop,” before shaking his head and answering the real question. “Justin is going to be joining us for this period on Thursdays from now on.”

Thankfully Jeff makes it easy and doesn't ask any further, actually he does the opposite, “Really? Great!”

Justin gives a smile that’s half awkward half pleased while Clay mumbles, “Yea great.” He wishes he sounded more confident but he’s never tutored two people at the same time and he isn’t totally sure how to or even confident that he can. “So Justin, you have a chem test tomorrow right?” The youngest boy nods. “And Jeff you have that essay that’s due soon right?” Another nod. Okay he can work with this, he just needs to take a deep breath and calm his nerves and he can do this.

“Alright, Jeff we made an outline on Tuesday, you still have it?” The boy pulls it out and he nods approvingly. “Start writing your intro paragraph and let me know when you’re done.” He waits for a thumbs up before turning to Justin. “The test is bonds right?” A nod, “Alright do you have a list of things you want to review with me or do you need to make it?”

Justin sifts through his notebook which looks like it should have disintegrated a while ago and finds something which when he passes over, is a hastily scratched list of topics to review.

They get right to it and everything works out well, like really well. He finishes explaining a bunch of stuff to Justin just in time for Jeff to need him to check over his paragraph so he sets the younger boy up with practice problems and gets to work with Jeff. He thinks he deserves a pay raise...or maybe just to be paid at all because they actually finish early. Jeff’s essay is drafted out and corrected, he needs to type it up and it’ll be done. Justin understands most of the stuff from his list and can successfully finish the practice problems.

When the bell rings, Jeff is up and gone right away for his upcoming quiz while he and Justin take their time gathering books and talking lazily about nothing, or nothing until Justin breaks in seriously.

“You did a good job today Clay. Handling two of us at once I mean.”

“Really?” He-well he doesn’t know, he thought he did a good job but validation, especially from one of the people he was tutoring, makes him feel pretty damn good.

Justin gives a silly smile from ear to ear. “Totally, you still answered all my questions and I didn’t even feel like Jeff being here took attention away from me.” He claps Clay on the back and they say goodbye.

He feels so amazing that for the rest of the day he’s on cloud nine, nothing ruins his mood and a lot of things try to. He has to sit through a really boring lesson in chemistry, has it pointed out in French that he’s the only one who got an A on the last test and is then mocked for being a nerd, has to deal with Bryce and then Monty, And yet despite everything, he still feels amazing. He even talks with Hannah after school and doesn’t find himself stressing out and second guessing every sentence.

It gets him so confident in his ability to handle the pair together than the next week blindsides him. It’s a slow day, no big exams or tests or even new material to cover. Justin is doing pretty good, actually he’s much more animated than he’s been recently and Jeff on a good day has a short attention span. Putting the two together is apparently all he needs to start graying when he’s fifteen.

It starts with Jeff humming. It’s a bad habit he does when he’s deep in thought and usually Clay can ignore it because although it sounds horrible and is totally tuneless most of the time it isn’t truly a problem.

Except this time it is because Justin responds with tapping out a beat with his knuckles on the table. He tries to ignore both of them, give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re paying so little attention to the world around them that they don’t even know they’re being unforgivably annoying. He can’t do it forever though.

“Cut it out.”

He hadn’t meant for it to come out so blunt but it does and that’s a problem because besides getting shushed by Skye from somewhere in the library, it also alerts the boneheads to their ability to gang up on him since they outnumber him. He gives them a withering glare to dissuade them and it actually works, for about three minutes. He goes back to his homework and has his face in a book when he hears Jeff stifle a chuckle. He glances over the top of the book ready to snap at one of them but both are looking down at their work and after watching them for a moment, he goes back and does the same thing. Until Justin giggles a moment later and once again his head snaps up but once again both of theirs are down.

It happens a few more times to his continued irritation until finally he growls after not catching them again, “Cut it out.”

Both look up from their books innocently and ask at the same time, “Cut what out?”

“The giggling!” He hisses louder than he wants a once again gets shushed by Skye which causes Jeff’s lip to twitch. 

They go back to work though, or at least they pretend to. He decides to catch the idiots in the act and watches from over the top of his book until he sees Jeff screw his face up, his tongue pokes out of the corner of his mouth and he’s almost cross eyed.

Justin doesn't properly look up and instead sees it the same way Clay does and chuckles softly.

“Stop making faces, what are you, four?”

The pair look sheepishly and Justin replies, “It’s not our fault you make faces when you concentrate really hard.”

“Or that they’re so funny.” Jeff chimes in.

Clay rolls his eyes. “I do not.”

“Yes you do.”

“Do not.”

“Yep.”

“I don’t!”

“Shhh!”

All three of them duck their heads as Skye materialize from an aisle armed with a thick dictionary and glaring at them. He gulps, if looks could kill.

“Hey Justin, what do you think is Clay’s type?”

“Not blondes.”

“Really?”

“Never, probably not redheads either.”

He tries to ignore the idiots whisper conversation but it’s hard when it’s about him. 

“So black or brown hair.” Justin nods. “She’d have to be smart too, Clay’s not dating an idiot.”

“Yeah he can barely stand us,”

“Courtney?”

“Crimson? Nah she’s smart but she’s too…”

“Too nice?”

Justin nods again, “Clay needs someone who can challenge him, and call him out on his bullshit.”

“Do I get a say in this?”

They reply in unison, “Nope.”

He grumbles but they’re too dumb to listen and anyway, they’re also probably too dumb to actually do this.

“Jess Davis?”

Justin stiffens and then smiles awkwardly and replies, “Too soon after he breakup with Alex.”

Jeff frowns, “Really? It’s been like a month and a half.”

Justin shugs noncommittally, “She can have all the time in the world. How about Amanda Bills?”

“She’s...nice?” Jeff tries to look confident about it but it doesn't really work.

“Too boring?”

“We’d never see them, all their dates would be hiding away to watch movies or something. I don’t want to lose my best friend,” he reaches over to mess his hair which he bats away, “and I don’t think either of us want to lose our tutor.”

“Yea, good point

Jeff nods thoughtfully. “Sheri?”

Justin perks up and looks hard at Clay. “Sheri and Clay? That could work, she’s smart, pretty, nice but not like, too nice. They’d be super cute together”

“Cut it out.” Sheri, well he’s always liked Sheri and that’s what makes this weird.

“Hannah Baker.”

His heart freezes when Justin says her name.

“Hannah? Well she’s interesting, a wild girl. You don’t think she would be too much on our little Clay do you?”

He thinks his face looks like a tomato but thankfully despite everything, the idiots don’t comment on it.

“I think Hannah’s the girl Clay wants.”

His eyes go huge while Jeff nods sagely. “I can see it.”

“Well stop seeing it.” Once again he’s ignored.

“So how do we get Clay to ask Hannah out?”

Jeff appears deep in thought and then says, “Well have to work on that one maybe brainstorm some ideas.”

He sighs, “I’m just going to have to deal with you two aren’t I?”

“Yep.” They practically sing the word and he shakes his head, these two are idiots but that’s nothing new. At least they’re idiots he can deal with.

“Just make sure you do your actual homework.”

“Relax we will.” 

With that they’re off and he watches them for a second before grabbing his bag and doing the same. Thursdays were going to be interesting from now on, these two clowns could really mess around if they want to but, well this conversation at least wasn’t too bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the lightest hearted chapter in the whole part just as an FYI. It isn't necessarily all down hill from here but none of the next ones will equal this one in pure fluff. Regretfully this is the last time we'll see Jeff taking a major role in the story until maybe next part. I feel something like this though, if the two were together, is absolutely possible.
> 
> Next chapter will probably be Friday and will feature a guest no one asked for but will help Clay understand more about how people see Justin.
> 
> Happy reading and please leave comments I love reading them and hear what all of you have to say!


	10. Called to the Office

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clay gets called to the office and meets with Mr. Bolan; on very uncomfortable and confusing conversation later, he’s left feeling very guilty.

Clay’s a good boy, a good student too. He doesn’t get in trouble and keeps his head down. He’s never had detention, boasts a perfect attendance record, and pulls straight A’s in all his classes, including the honors ones, and sits on the honor board. 

All of that makes getting called to the office even more terrifying. It comes out of nowhere, one moment he’s sitting in communications idly sketching a bunny while pretending and failing to pay attention. When the loudspeaker crackles to life, he only half pays attention in case it’s a lock down but outside of that he doesn't expect it’s anything that concerns him. In fact it isn’t until after the announcement ends that he realizes it’s even for him and it takes a moment after that to make himself move. Then he internally debates if he should bring his stuff or not and weighs the pros and cons either way and Mrs. Bradley tells him he can come back for it. She looks surprised too but nothing more than idly so. His classmates are practically humming with interest though and he feels embarrassed and ashamed as he slowly makes his way there, feet dragging across the linoleum tiles all the way.

Once in the office, Mrs. Rhen motions him into Mr. Bolan’s office with a bored wave of her hand while she calls in to let the man know he’s here. 

Inside the office he finds the principal looking harried and maybe a little annoyed but he smiles when Clay comes in and bids him to take a seat.

“You’re not in any trouble Clay I just needed to get a few things straight for paperwork concerns.”

He thinks he sags into the chair, thoroughly relieved by the news but at the same time.

“Don’t you have a secretary for that?”

A wry smile crosses the man’s face and he stands up to retrieve something from a filing cabinet while explaining, “As principal my job is not only administration but also everything else that happens in the building, from sanitation on through and paperwork, even with a secretary, takes up most of my time.” Apparently finding what he wants he returns to the desk and begins again. “Now according to what I’m reading here you’re one of our tutors correct?”

He nods and despite no tone shift this suddenly feels a little more like an interrogation.

“I can’t thank you enough on my behalf and for everyone in the school, tutors are hard to find, much less very good ones and it seems most of the people you’re paired with do very well within a few months in at least one subject, you’ve even helped Mr. Atkins bring up his grades and he’s important to our baseball team.”

Clay fights not to roll his eyes because of course sports finds their way into the conversation.

“Now according to the school’s files you’re working with Justin Foley correct?”

“I am.”

The man nods and writes something down.

“And you work with him in math, science, and literature?”

“I do.”

Another notation. 

“And for how long, it seems like a few months so far?”

“Umm yes, I think about two maybe?”

“That looks correct, and how does he do?”

“Umm, he’s alright, some days are better than others.” Actually yesterday had been miserable. Justin hadn’t been able to focus and Clay had gotten frustrated pretty quickly, even talking about it leaves a bad taste in his mouth and apparently it shows on his face and Mr. Bolan makes another note.

“I see and you don’t help him in history correct?”

“No, I check his homework for it once in a while when we have time left over but that’s about it.”

The man marks something else down and then continues. “And when you say you check his homework I assume that’s all you do?” He nods “And how often is this? I can only imagine that tutoring in all four subjects for the same person must be exhausting and time consuming. You only meet with him three times a week and one of those is a period you also tutor Jeffery Atkins.”

“Not often, probably not even once a week.”

“And you don’t do test prep with him for the class?”

“No? Why?” He’s suspicious now.

“Well normally I’m not allowed to reveal these sorts of things to another student but since your name was used I don’t see the harm. Justin did very well on his last history test, too well in fact. Naturally Mrs. Burns suspects cheating, we’ve had that problem with him in the past but he claimed you were tutoring him and that’s why he did so well. Of course from what you’ve said I know he’s lying which is very troubling inde-”

“Wait a second, Justin wasn’t lying I just told you I was tutoring him in history.”

Mr. Bolan smiles at him but it isn’t a kind smile, it’s one that’s trying to be patient and isn’t really succeeding. “You also said not test prep and not even once a week so he shouldn’t from from a C to an A- now should he?”

“He shouldn’t even be getting a C, I’ve checked at least ten assignments and the worst I’ve found are some spelling mistakes. He should be getting A’s not C’s in the first place!”

This time he has a name for the smile, condescending and completely so. 

“Listen to me Clay, it’s good you take pride in the students you tutor and want to believe the best in them but you can’t change who people fundamentally are.”

Clay’s mind goes blank for a moment as he tries to catch up with the statement but when he does, he doesn’t like it. “What do you mean who they are?” 

The man across from him gives him a smile that is slightly more sympathetic and slightly less condescending while replying, “I mean what I said Clay, you’re a good tutor but a good tutor can’t make up for disinterest in learning, that sort of thing starts young and is reinforced at home. And if it gets to be too much, let me know. I don’t want to see someone as promising as you get burnt out on someone like him. If we’re lucky he’ll give up and free room in your schedule for more worthwhile students.”

“Wait-you think that-isn’t your job to help everyone learn?”

“It is and it’s a job I take very seriously but I’ve been at it for a long time, long enough to know that I can’t help every student, especially not the ones that aren’t interested. I won’t waste time and resources where they will be wasted, it’s already hard enough to get help to those more deserving of it.”

“Justin deserves it just as much as anyone else.”

Another patronizing look. “Naivety doesn’t suit you. When he can keep a clean record, bring his grades up, avoid fights, and stop upsetting Coach Patrick and Mrs. Tymes into leaving complaints with me, then maybe I’ll change my mind but since even one of those is unlikely-”

“It’s not his job to prove to you that he deserves time and resources! It’s your job to provide them to every student no matter what!”

The man looks a little surprised, if only for a moment, then he shifts to annoyed. “That’s enough out of you Mr. Jensen. I’ve already explained more to you than you deserve to know and I’m not going to waste anymore time on this conversation. Eventually you’ll see as I do, that boy will be nothing better than his mother. Now go back to class, I have work to do.”

He’s angry, Justin’s doing much better already and that’s in spite of a lack of support from home and apparently from the school as well. He wants to argue more but as he’s opening his mouth to Bolan threatens to give a detention or call home. It doesn’t make him want to fight less but clearly the man isn’t seeing reason so he gets up and leaves.

13RW13RW13RW13RW13RW13RW

He can’t talk when he sits down across from Justin later. His tongue is tied and he feels guilty, even though he can’t say why exactly. Justin picks up on it immediately and watches him with big, sad eyes as he waits for Clay to say something and when he can’t, the other boy prompts him gently.

“Clay?”

He shakes his head unable to make the right words come out and instead dodges the issue all together. They work on Justin’s homework and review for his upcoming biology test and the younger boy doesn’t boy doesn’t push him. 

Somehow that makes him feel worse and even though they get through review questions and practice sheet without too much trouble, it doesn’t make him feel any better. Justin did very well, he should get at least a B tomorrow and yet...will he?

“Are you just going to keep moping or do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

Justin’s watching him closely and even though he knows the result he denies the charge.

“I’m not moping.”

“Right that’s why you face looks like this.”

He scrunches his brow up and stares straight at Clay’s face and he has to admit that it’s textbook sulking but not at all what he looks like. Justin stops a moment later and continues, “Listen I get it, things happen but you’re looking at me like I did something so I want to know now if we’re good.”

His mouth is dry and after a couple false starts he finally manages, “No.” He feels dirty just for saying the word, shame wells up in him and he can’t meet Justin’s eyes.

“How about you tell me what happened and then you can mope if you need to?”

He feels Justin’s knee knock against his under the table and he looks up to see Justin looking a little confused and a little worried but confident somehow.

“I umm, you heard I got called down to the office?”

Justin nods so he continues, “Mr. Bolan wanted to talk to me about-about you. He told me about your history test and accused you of cheating and then he-he said awful things about you. Said you were a bad student and didn’t deserve help and- I just let him. I couldn’t-couldn’t make him see he’s wrong.” 

Somehow after he says it, he feels even worse, like he’s let his friend down. He can’t even look at him, afraid of what he’ll see Justin-well he can’t imagine too many people stand up for him that often. He’s seen Amber first hand and knows what she has to offer and that leaves him with who, Bryce? Zach? If he looks up and sees disappointment or betrayal or anything like that he won’t be able to live with himself.

“That’s what’s bothering you so much?”

His head snaps up because that isn’t what he expects to hear and Justin’s face shows no trace of animosity at all, actually he looks relieved almost and what he says next supports this idea.

“I was worried it was something serious.”

“I-It-What?” He can’t even respond because it is serious, there’s no way Justin should take this so easily.

The younger boy gives him an easy smile, “Listen Clay, Bolan doesn’t like me and Burns hates me. You fighting with either of them isn’t going to change so I’d rather you didn’t, there’s no sense in joining me in detention, that would be two wasted afternoons instead of just one.”

“But-I’ve seen you homework, you can do it and you should be getting better than C’s.”

He shrugs noncommittally. 

Frustrations wells up in him, Justin should be fighting not just letting this happen. He can prove them wrong! “How can you care so little about this!”

Justin ducks his head and Clay feels a little bad at shouting but not really.

“Why? It won’t change anything.”

“You don’t know that until you try.”

“I do.” He looks uncomfortable now but Clay isn’t about to let that stop him.

“How?”

He sighs heavily and doesn’t say anything for a moment and Clay almost doesn’t think he’s going to give a verbal reply when he says, “It’s just not how the world works Clay. I’m happy you know I can do better and that’s all I need. I’ll deal with Burns for the rest of the year and she doesn’t teach U.S. two so it’ll be fine.”

He opens his mouth but Justin cuts him off. “Really. Just leave it.”

The anger cools and guilt replaces as he nods. He doesn’t want to leave it, feels like he should do something, but doesn’t know what that be, not doing anything though just seems like a terrible betrayal regardless of what Justin says.

“I can start doing test prep with you, or saying I do. If that happens then they’ll have to expect you to get a better grade right?” It still feels like taking the easy way out, the cowards way out, treat the symptom not the disease sort of thing but it’s the only thing he can think of.

Justin thinks about it for a bit and then nods, “Yea, sure we can do that.”

Clay opens his mouth because something in Justin’s voice doesn’t seem right but the other boy beats him to speaking. “Now explain this whole factoring to me again, I think I’ve almost got it but I have a test on it in two days.”

Obviously the conversation is over and with a sigh he gives up and starts working on something he can fix, namely Justin’s D in algebra. Somehow it doesn’t seem as rewarding as it used to and he can’t look at Mrs. Burns the next day because he’s not sure he can hold his temper if he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to another chapter. So the mystery guest is Bolan with side mentions of characters I use in my other story. For the record, Bolan is trying to do what he thinks is right. Schools don't have the resources they need to effectively do their jobs and he's trying to do the most with what he has...that said obviously he's wrong about a lot of things. The reports from the nurse and Coach are mandatory reporting things that Bolan chooses not to pursue. The conversation with Justin at the end is just an indicator of how he feels about all of this.
> 
> Next chapter will be along by Tuesday. It'll also feature another character but this time a familiar face. I may need to start lengthening the time between chapters because Part 3 is kicking my butt! I know what I want but the words aren't coming and it's very frustrating. 
> 
> As always happy reading and I love and appreciate all the comments you leave for me!


	11. Lunch (Breakfast and Dinner)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A perfectly good day to do school work and get ahead goes to waste because Justin uses him damn puppy privilege with his big stupid eyes. It isn’t a total waste though, but he’s going to swear off ice cream for the rest of his life afterwards.

Today’s an early dismissal and Clay plans to go home and get a lot of homework done ahead of time, not the most exciting way to spend it but half days seem good for little else. However, these plans inevitably come to an end when Justin accosts him as soon as he steps foot outside the school. The other boy looks cheerful which usually means he’s up to something and sure enough, before Clay can say anything Justin makes an offer.

“Want to come to the Uptown Diner?”

He’s too surprised by the abrupt invitation to reply for a moment but then says dumbly, “homework.” He should have said ‘essay’ because he has one due on Friday and needs to start working on it now if he wants it to be perfect by then but homework serves the purpose well enough...except that it doesn’t. He’s mentioned the essay to Justin a few times but he still shouldn’t be surprised by the answer he gets.

“Aww c’mon Clay, that’s three whole days from now, you have time.”

“I can’t work on it tomorrow, tutoring.” He still feels like he’s on the defensive, or maybe trying to catch up because this is so out of the blue.

Justin looks a combination of resigned and disappointed as he begins to say goodbye and wish him luck but Clay cuts him off.

“Fine, I’ll go.” The other boy’s expression had vaguely resembled a kicked puppy. Lip pouting a little and big, sad eyes that Clay doesn’t think he could refuse it if he needed too.

Apparently the whole thing was an act because Justin, the little shit, breaks into a huge grin as soon as he changes his decision, so fast it seems he expected this outcome, and begins pulling him away from the school by his arm in a manner way to excited to just be for food. Then again, Justin always acts really happy for food so maybe it isn’t that out of the ordinary.

It gets awkward when they meet up with Zach who watches them in amusement from half a block away until they reach him.

“Willem cancelled so you decide to rope Clay into this?”

“Clay’s happy to be here,” He’s facing Zach but at the end he wheels around to look at Clay and with the same, sad eyes and tacks on, “Right?” 

“Yea- yea I’m happy to be here but why are we going out of our way to go there when Rosy’s is closer and has better food?” Really how many times is he just going to roll over for those eyes?

Zach looks distinctly unimpressed with Justin for a moment before saying, “You didn’t tell him?”

“We can tell him on the way, now c’mon I’m starving!”

The youngest boy practically skips down the street ahead of them but turns when he gets to the corner and calls for them to hurry up. It’s a little awkward because he and Zach don’t really know each other but Zach gives him a look and he recognizes it easily as the half fond, half exasperated expression he often wears when dealing with Justin.

“Come on, if we don’t hurry up he’ll never let us hear the end of it.”

“He won’t let us hear the end of it anyway.”

Zach laughs and agrees but they still pick up the pace in order to catch up to Justin. The walk is about forty minutes and by the end of it he’s also starving but it hasn’t been a bad walk contrary to what he expected. Maybe he should have had a little more confidence in Justin to begin with. The other boy manages the conversation well, really well actually, he balances it so none of them are bored or get talked over and Clay ends up deciding that Zach is okay. The tall boy leaves most of the storytelling to Justin while stepping in to curb his ego by pointing out lies and inconsistencies in his story with a voice that obviously wants to be level but still has amusement creep into it. Justin usually whines at him for ruining a good story or for cutting him off ‘just before the good part’. It’s funny, Zach isn’t mean about it and despite his protests, Justin clearly isn’t upset.

When they get in to the diner, he thinks he’s hungry enough to eat anything and mentions it which perks Justin up right away.

“I hope you mean that cause we have a lot of eating to do!” They take a seat and wait for a waiter to come around which isn’t long, she takes drink orders and then starts to pass out menus but Justin stops her politely.

“We already know what we want, we’re going to do the death by sundae challenge.”

Clay frowns, he wants a sandwich or something with more substance and less sugar. 

“You boys know it’s sixteen scoops of ice cream on top of a brownie right? And also fifty dollars?”

“Unless we finish it.”

She blinks at Justin in surprise and then nods, “Unless you finish it but we’ve only ever had six groups succeed.”

He gives a full Foley smile and says, “Well you’ve just met your seventh.”

She laughs, as in a real, genuine laugh, he can’t believe it, and says, “Alright boys I need to see the money first, company policy.” Zach and Justin put the cash down on the table and she nods approvingly before scribbling the order down and says, “I’ll be right back with it.”

“We can’t have ice cream for lunch!” He finds his voice as soon as the waitress leaves and decides he needs to start with the obvious.

Both look at him, Justin like he’s crazy and Zach like he should have expected this. He probably should have, they did mention something about telling him something on the way but was forgotten pretty quickly after they started talking.

“Why not?”

“It isn’t healthy!”

Justin laughs, “Really? That’s you’re worried about that? C’mon Clay, we’ll live.”

“Yea with diabetes.”

“Live a little. It’ll be fun I promise!” Justin looks so earnest and he glances at Zach hoping for some support.

Instead he gets a shrug and an apologetic smile, “Sorry, I already agreed.”

“Don’t you two have to take care of your bodies or something for sports, like a temple or some nonsense?”

That earns laughter from both and when Zach manages to calm himself replies, “Yea, maybe if we’re Jeff. Trust me this one likes junk food too much for that, he’d live off candy and grease if I let him.” He sort of taps Justin on the head as he says it.

“You’re one to talk! Zach thinks Mike and Ikes are like, their own food group.”

“Exactly! Clearly you two should avoid another pointless calorie dumb! Dirty bulking is bad.”

Both burst out laughing again and Justin manages to say, “Man, you have to spend less time with Jeff.”

He opens his mouth to protest when a bathtub...full of ice cream...is plopped down on the table between them. He hadn’t even noticed the waitress return. She passes out spoons to all of them and smiles.

“Well boys, here you are, one death by sundae challenge, three spoons, three waters, a pile of napkins and one timer.”

“Timer?” Now he’s just confused.

The waitress looks at him surprised and says, “Well yeah, you have thirty minutes to complete the challenge. If we didn’t set a time limit, geniuses would walk in and spend the whole day eating it and then we’d lose a lot of money.”

It made sense but still...only a half hour to eat this slowly melting mountain? He was getting sick just thinking about it, and cavities, he’s getting them too.

“You look a little green already, don’t tell me want to give up before we even start?”

“Yeah, you’d better pull your weight. Now that you’re on the team I expect you to eat at least five scopes of ice-cream and most of that brownie!”

“I didn’t even ask to be on this ‘team’!”

The waitress chuckles as she’s leaving and the scene they’re making cause several of the other people in the restaurant to watch. He pales at the thought of anyone watching this but Justin holds a spoon out to him expectantly with big, sad eyes and he sighs before accepting it. This is going to be impossible, there is no way three people, even if one of them is Justin, can eat this much pure sugar but it looks like they’re just going to have to find that out the hard way.

Zach takes his spoon and starts the timer resulting in the trio digging in. The sundae consists of several flavors lumped together, four scoops each of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, and then two each of mint chocolate chip and cookie dough, Justin makes a beeline for the chocolate while Zach starts with the cookie dough. He starts on the vanilla but once he gets through a scoop of it, Justin and Zach both protest.

“You need to save vanilla for last.”

“You need not talk with food in your mouth.”

Justin responds like the child he is by opening his mouth fully until Zach shoves him slightly, “Justin that’s gross, he’s right Clay. Vanilla is the last flavor we should eat because it’ll go down the easiest. Work on the brownie and cookie dough, than chocolate and mint chocolate.”

“You actually strategized for this?”

“Duh we want to win.”

Fair enough, he excavates the brownie from under the mountain of ice cream before starting but it’s huge and by the end of it he feels gross. He manages to get through to the middle of the chocolate and mint chocolate before he has to put his spoon down and look away. Zach joins him when those are finished and Justin groans, “You’re both out? Come on, we’re almost done.”

Zach waves his hand unable to even talk while Clay downs some water and closes his eyes.

When he opens them, Justin is halfway through the vanilla and strawberry and the whole sundae is now little more than a soup with lumps floating in it and he manages to pick his spoon up and helps to finish off the rest with Justin. It seems they were right, the vanilla, now slightly pink from the strawberry goes down easier than the brownie or other flavors and it’s the only reason he makes it through.

When it is done he sit there feeling disgusting, worse than he’s ever felt before and also smugly proud of himself for some stupid reason. A cheer goes up through the restaurant for them and with three minutes left on the timer, they have the record time. 

He leans back in his chair and closes his eyes again while Justin talks to the people around them. Clay smiles as the younger boy thanks them for their support and answers questions and generally thrives off the attention. He doesn’t protest too much when he’s accused of not pulling his weight because Justin’s joking, but he totally ate more than Zach.

The levity comes to an unexpected end when a voice sneers, “Why are we praises them for something like this? They’re like animals! It’s like no one feeds this one when he goes home.”

His eyes snap open to see a man at the table next to them looking at them in disgust and his eyes linger on Justin whose smile is still there but now forced. Clay’s pretty sure he’s the only one who can tell until Zach makes a sound between a burp and hiccup and a chunky, rainbow colored spray comes out of his lips and onto the man.

A noise of disgust follows and the man is out the door in seconds, another cheer goes up and Zach takes a mock bow from his seat before he closes his eyes again. Their waitress comes over to congratulate them and she mops up the vomit without complaint. 

With the puke and the man gone, the celebration continues for a bit and Justin is once again back in full performing mode, soaking it up and loving every second of it. When Zach feels better he heads into the bathroom to clean up and when he returns, they pose with the timer, empty tub, and mop for a picture and watch it go on the wall. He’s surprised by how comfortable he looks in the photo, not only because he’s just eaten what seems to be his body weight in ice cream and brownie but also...he doesn't really have a nice smile but in the picture it looks pretty natural. 

The celebration ends when they have to go home, Justin waits with them until the bus comes and he and Zach board and take seats. The first part of the ride is quiet, they still aren’t friends and both are still fighting off a food coma but eventually Zach starts up a conversation about the only thing they have in common.

“Thanks for coming, Justin’s been wanting to do it for a while but he’s never had the money and well, if we needed to cancel today he would have been disappointed.”

He doesn’t really know what to say so replies lamely, “It wasn’t as bad as I expected.”

Zach grins, it looks awkward and he’s surprised, Zach always looks so...confident? He doesn’t remember a time when the other boy has looked uncomfortable before. 

“Good but umm, do me a favor?” When Clay doesn’t reply he continues, taking the silence as permission to do so. “If he tries to rope you into another eating contest anytime soon, find any reason not to. I can’t handle another one of these.”

Clay laughs and nods, “Me neither, I don’t know where he puts it all.” Besides the one time Clay watched him eat himself sick, he’s seen Justin demolish huge amounts of food and look totally fine after. 

He suddenly wonders if maybe he doesn’t get fed at home because he is tiny but he tries to push that thought away, surely for all her fault, his mom at least feeds him. Then again...his look when the man in the diner said otherwise. He glances at Zach but the other boy looks sort of uncomfortable.

“I don’t know either. Anyway, what’s this I hear about Jeff and Justin trying to play matchmaker?”

He rolls his eyes, “Did he tell you about that?”

“Didn’t shut up about it, for some reason he thought I could help him come up with ideas.”

The conversation shifts to them making fun of Justin and all of his oddities and Clay finds himself enjoying it. It’s anything but deep but it is good humored and he thinks he’s going to need to do this again with Justin around, it might be fun to make him squirm a bit for a change. Zach seems to agree and he has a feeling he’ll be hanging out with the other boy again and he’s sort of looking forward to it, it could be a lot of fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to another chapter! This was a super fun one to write and I had the idea a long time ago before I got to it. I personally tend to think eating contests are gross but it totally feels like something Justin would want to try, would successfully rope Zach into and then rope Clay into as a replacement. 
> 
> Next chapter should be out Friday or Saturday and will be a Matt chapter, Matt and Lainie towards the end. Also I seem to have found my second wind with Part three and have officially started on it but as I should start work next week, updates may slow down.
> 
> Happy reading and thank you to everyone who leave comments, kudos, and bookmarks!


	12. Uncle Matt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt gets a strange call during one of his break periods to come into the school and pick his nephew up. He doesn’t have a nephew in Liberty but he ends up picking Justin up anyway and bringing him to the ER to get checked out.

It’s been a long morning between looking for parking in the rain, faculty meetings with the dean and _Canterbury Tales_ with one of the most disinterested classes he’s ever had but lunch brings with it the promise of change. His afternoon is significantly shorter since his ‘lunch’ is at two o’clock, it’s also free of meetings and instead consists of two ‘office hours’ which in reality is him doing research for his next paper and _maybe_ meeting with a student who wants to go over an essay, but that’s pretty unlikely. Then he has his Russian Literature class which is his favorite this semester and then he gets to clock out.

He pulls a sandwich out of his lunch box and is about to eat it when his phone rings. With a sigh he checks the caller ID and it’s Liberty. His heart jumps to his throat and he can’t enter his password fast enough to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Matthew Jensen?” It’s a woman’s voice and she sounds surprised which is odd but he doesn’t think too much on it. Rather, he wishes she would get to the point and then realizes he should answer her.

“Speaking.”

“My name is Mrs. Tymes, I’m the nurse at Liberty High School and I have your nephew? with me. I called his mother several times but she isn’t picking up and you’re the only other contact listed but no relation is given. I was hoping you could come and take him to the emergency room. He suffered a head injury during P.E. today and it isn’t serious but he really should see a doctor to make sure of that.”

“My nephew?” He’s an only child and Lainie’s brother and sister live in SoCal, and love to brag about it. He doesn’t have a nephew in the school.

“Justin Foley? My apologize if I am incorrect. You were listed here and I assumed-”

“No it’s fine,” he cuts her off quickly after hearing the familiar name glances at his watch and then says “I can be there in twenty minutes. Is he okay?” He must never have been taken off the contact list when Justin stopped staying with them, maybe it’s for the best though, an E.R. trip? That sounds bad.

“Well if he was ‘okay’ I wouldn’t have called but as I said, it’s nothing serious.”

He waits for more of an explanation but doesn’t get one, apparently she is a woman of few words so he awkwardly replies, “Alright, I’ll be there soon.”

“I will see you here, when you arrive, give the front desk your name and tell them you are here to see me, they’ll be expecting you.”

He thanks her and hangs up. Then dials the number for the secretary in the humanities office and while it rings, starts shoving things in his bag. When she picks up, he tells her he has an emergency and is leaving early. By the time he hangs up with her, he’s grabbed his bag and is out the door. He doesn’t run through the building but he keeps a fast past and finds himself annoyed by a group of slow-moving students in front of him. That annoyance is magnified when he remembers that he’s parked far from the building but makes up for the time spent walking by ignoring a few red lights, Lainie would be appalled. 

He’s at the school three minutes ahead of his estimate and thankfully getting in is easy once he says his name and shows his licence. The front desk is manned by a very old man whose uniform reads ‘security’ and Matt isn’t one to judge on physical ability but what exactly the man is securing is beyond him. He’s helpful though and even pages the nurse so she can come and get him. The woman who arrives is a short lady with dark skin and hair pulled back into the tightest bun he’s ever seen. Everything about her looks severe and when she speaks, it reinforces that idea.

“Matthew Jensen?”

He nods and she makes a motion with her hand. “Follow me.”

Despite being short, her pace is quick but he’s happy, a slow walk would make this worse. He expects the trip to be silent since she wasn’t very forthcoming with information on the phone but instead she speaks first.

“Thank you for coming, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen Mr. Foley in my office but it’s the only time someone has actually picked him up.” Her voice is clipped and cool like it was over the phone and he isn’t sure if it’s his imagination or not but she sounds displeased. About what, he isn’t exactly sure. 

He can’t think of a reply but he doesn’t need to thankfully because they arrive. He follows the woman inside and finds two occupants, Justin, laying down on a cot apparently sleeping with his head on the lap of a tall, Asain boy whose hand is resting on Justin’s head, combing through his hair. He locks gazes with Matt who finds himself surprised at the intensity which the dark eyes scrutinize him with. It’s like the boy is trying to find something in his soul. 

“Mr. Dempsey I believe my instructions were to keep him awake.” Her voice is crisp as ever.

A slurred “I am” mixes with a calm, “he is”. And that gives him a little hope. When he first saw the other boy he had been worried that someone he assumes is a pretty good friend of Justin might call him out on not being Justin’s uncle which could be a problem. However if Justin is awake enough to talk and reply, then maybe his ‘nephew’ will be able to back his story up.

He makes his way over to Justin, who now has his eyes open and asks, “How are you doing buddy?” He keeps his voice soft and gentle but he doesn’t really know why, Justin shouldn’t be so badly off that he needs it but somehow the voice feels right.

The confused look on Justin’s face tugs at his heart for some reason and the boy sluggishly replies, “ ‘M good, tired.” His brow furrows as he focuses on him confused before asking, “What’re you doin’ ‘ere?” The slurred voice is exhausted and small but he smiles anyway and with the other boy’s help, moves into a sitting position, back supported against the other boy, facing Matt. 

“Your uncle is going to bring you to the hospital. Mr. Dempsey, I believe it’s time you returned to class.”

The boy doesn’t look very happy at being told this but does as he’s told, giving Matt one last fearsome look.

A minute later Justin’s standing and they’re on their way out when the nurse adds, “Make sure he doesn’t fall asleep until he is checked out. It shouldn’t be a problem but it’s best to err on the side of caution. And don’t forget to sign him out with the desk in front, he doesn’t need anymore absences.”

In the car, Justin seems a little more awake and starts talking happily, telling Matt about a basketball game that the team has coming up and what they’re doing to prepare for it. None of it makes any sense and not just because he doesn't know much about the game. Still, he plays along, asking him simple questions and figuring this is keeping him awake and therefore is good.

His attitude changes when they walk into the hospital, he seems to realize only then where they are and gets stiff. He looks at Matt with big eyes, doubtful, worried, and struggling to string thoughts together. “Why’re we ‘ere?”

“We just need to get you checked out buddy, make sure you’re fine. Why don’t you get a seat and I’ll let the desk know we’re waiting?”

The eyes still look sad but Justin nods and finds a seat in the corner where they’ll be away from people while he goes up to the desk in the front. He hopes they can just see a doctor and get out of here without him having to do any paperwork because unless he claims Justin is Clay, he can’t really do anything since he isn’t Justin’s legal guardian. The nurse at the front is an old woman and she looks tired but smiles at him politely and listen to him lie through his teeth about his relation to Justin before asking him to take a seat and wait to be called. She doesn't give him any paperwork but she does apologetically mention that it’ll be a while.

He takes a seat next to Justin and notices the boy starting to nod off.

“Justin, you’ve got to stay up buddy.” While taking, he shakes the boy’s arm gently and almost has to hold him in his seat when he violently jerks awake. He looks at Matt in alarm but when Matt repeats what he said, it seems to have no effect as Justin starts nodding off again. 

“Let’s play a game, how does that sound?” Keeping Justin awake is important but he doesn’t know what to do unless he wants to shake his arm every few seconds and then keep him from falling out of his chair. Unfortunately he can only think of one game to play since Justin clearly isn’t up to much thinking in this state.

The boy nods his head though looking interested past the drooping eyelids. “ ‘Ow do we play?”

“We pick a category and name something of it for every letter of the alphabet. Think you can do that?” He remembers this game being a Godsend for long car rides when Clay was younger and them exhausting almost every topic they could think of but it always distracted him enough.

Justin nods and he contains a sigh of relief because if the boy had said ‘no’ he would have been in trouble, eye spy would have been very boring in an almost all white room. “Alright, why don’t we start with animals?”

They play several rounds and with something to focus on, Justin wakes up a little bit and gets as into it as he can even suggesting his own categories, professional basketball players, sport terms, and a few others. He helps Matt with these but shortly after starts to fade again. They go a few more rounds but it’s obvious that the game isn’t having an effect anymore and he starts hoping to find a new solution when the woman from the desk calls him over. She informs him that Justin can sleep as long as Matt wakes him up every twenty minutes to ask him questions. She then apologizes again for the wait.

He’s frustrated by the time it’s taking, they’ve been here an hour and a half already and there’s apparently no end in sight. He’s going to have to text Clay and Lainie soon and let them know they’re on their own for dinner but at least Justin can sleep a bit. He thanks her and returns to his seat, Justin’s already nodded off, head tilted back in a way that can’t be comfortable, not that any position in this place could be, and Matt pulls out his phone to send the texts he needs. Clay answers with a simple ‘okay’ while Lainie asks if he’s okay. He lets her know and is mildly surprised she doesn’t call him to demand more details, she does demand details but over text so he assumes she’s in a meeting or at the courthouse which can’t hold a call. They text for a while but eventually she has to go. He wakes Justin up for his first round of questions and with a little coaxing it isn’t too hard. 

The process repeats far too many times before they’re called in and he gets excited as they’re led into a bustling room and he has to take care to direct Justin so the boy doesn't end up underfoot. He’s disappointed when they’re directed into a small, almost claustrophobic cubicle and again told to wait for the doctor. Sitting on the two less comfortable chairs, Justin nods off again but this time to his alarm, his head finds Matt’s shoulder to rest on. He thinks maybe he should wake Justin up or try to get him to shift to somewhere else but decides not to. If the boy wants to nap on him...well he probably won’t remember it tomorrow and he can put up with the awkwardness for the moment.

They end up waiting another hour and a half back there for a doctor. When one finally does come, Matt is ready to punch someone but holds his temper because it isn’t useful. The doctor goes through the same checks he’s been doing for the past hours and tells him to take Justin home, make sure he drinks a lot of fluids and wake him up every two hours to check on him, if he’s still showing signs of it in the morning bring him back in and if not he’s fine. He ends up laughing because he’s exhausted and could have just taken Justin home to do that in comfort rather than waiting here for eight plus hours. The doctor isn’t amused and tells him to leave, as if he was planning on staying.

The ride home is mostly silent because Justin is dozing off and he doesn’t have the energy to keep up a conversation on anything. He doesn’t bother bringing Justin to his house either since he isn’t sure where it is and if his mother couldn’t be bothered to pick up in the first place, she can deal with him spending the night with a friend. He’ll borrow Justin’s phone when he gets home and call her. Besides, he doubts he’ll get the woman.

After he pulls in, he’s numb enough and Justin is just lucid enough for them to work out him piggybacking Justin into the house. Lainie looks mortified, Clay looks worried, both meet them at the front door.

He gets past them and lets Justin down on the couch, helping the boy stretch out. 

“Dad?” Clay sounds concerned.

“Matthew.” Lainie unamused.

“He has a concussion but it’s minor. He needs to sleep it off. You two can go to bed. I’m going to reheat something since I haven’t eaten since breakfast and then I’ll stay down here with him. He needs to be woken up every two hours to answer questions.”

“Do his parents know-”

“I don’t care if they do or not. I’m the one who’s spent the better part of eight hours at a hospital with him.”

Lainie frowns and he has a feeling he knows what’s going on in her head so he adds, “I’ll use his phone and send one of them a text to let them know where he is and offer to let someone come get him. Besides, he’s already asleep and I don’t want to move him again.” It’s true he really would rather not. Justin doesn't weigh that much but he’s exhausted and stiff from uncomfortable plastic chairs and really wants to go to sleep even if he’s getting up in an hour and a half anyway. Thankfully Lainie lets it go, she obviously isn’t happy about it and what they’re doing could definitely be construed as kidnapping but he has a feeling that whoever Justin’s parents are won’t be too bothered to find he’s missing since one of them couldn’t be bothered to pick up the phone.

Instead, she heads upstairs and he hears the linen closet door open. Five minutes later, he has an empty plate that he’s just moved to the coffee table after inhaling what was on it, and tugs a blanket over himself laying down on recliner. Justin’s sneakers are off his feet and he’s tucked in as much as Lainie felt was appropriate for someone else’s kid and Clay’s sent the text and also left two bottles of Gatorade on the coffee table so Matt won’t have to struggle to find it in the dark. When he hugged Matthew goodnight it was just proof that he was right, at least to his tired mind. Clay isn’t physically affectionate unless he’s worried and even is Lainie isn’t sold on the idea, Clay seems more than happy Justin is staying.

He takes another look at the boy sleeping on his couch finally looking peaceful. He shakes his head, the saga of Justin continues but he could have done without this chapter. Despite that, he knows he’ll do it again if he has to. Something about the nurse’s attitude didn’t sit right with him, nor the other boy. They both acted like he was suspicious. He pushes the thoughts aside and gets some rest.

The first time he wakes the boy up, Justin has no idea where he is and when Matt explains, the boy cries and hugs his waist, thanking him over and over for not leaving him at the hospital. It makes him uncomfortable, that Justin thought he’d be left in the hospital but thankfully the rest of the times he wakes the boy up are less eventful and the next day he’s a little embarrassed and definitely tired but better. He apologizes about a dozen times but Matt continually assures him it wasn’t a problem and thankfully Justin doesn't notice how stiff he is. 

He corners Justin before he heads out to school and asks him if everything is okay at home. He’s not surprised when Justin says yes but now he just has to convince himself the boy’s telling the truth and it’s a hard sell. His mind is on him for the rest of the day and he’s sort of expecting the nurse to call again but she doesn’t. Too bad, it would be nice to know what to do. 

He talks to Lainie about it later when they’re alone. She tells him unhappily that suspicion isn’t enough for any real action. It leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. They spend hours talking about what they might be able to do but ultimately the best they can come up with is to make sure that he knows he’s safe with them, welcome whenever, and that he can talk to them and pray that someday he does. It isn’t much of a plan but as Lainie reminds him several times, it’s the best they can do for now. 

They don’t sleep that night.

The next day she comes to him with about a hundred forms that need his signature. They’re for foster care. He reads and signs them in record time and she tells him it’s just a precaution, deciding not to tell Clay is easy, worrying him would be pointless and bad. They sleep a little better that night, they have something more concrete than wait and hope for the best and it’s good to know that if something happens, they’ll be as ready as they can be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to another chapter! So this is probably the longest one in the part and any time I tried to trim it down it got longer instead. I did have a lot of fun writing it because I like Matt quite a bit and writing the parents alone at the end was also enjoyable. I think both of them have a lot of potential the show doesn't really make good use of post season 2 and I want to try fixing that a little in this fic. 
> 
> As for next chapter, it should come Tuesday and will feature a character that hasn't yet appeared in this story, only been mentioned...two actually! It will be a pretty messed up chapter but one I hope you all will enjoy anyway. In other news I'm slowly working my way through part 3, I've finished the first chapter, almost finished the second chapter and have a couple of others started so hopefully there won't be too much delay between the end of this one and the start of that one. Also a thank you to Daisy for giving me an idea of how to end that part!
> 
> Happy reading and I'm excited to read your comments!


	13. Party Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just come to the party he says, Hannah will be there, he says, it’ll be fun, he says. Well next time he’s not falling for Justin’s lies!

Clay hates parties. More than hates them, he despises them. He doesn’t like the large groups, the noise, the drinking and smoking. He doesn’t like the sheer number of people, it stresses him out, so many bodies pressed against each other, it makes him uncomfortable, claustrophobic even,like he’s losing himself and just becoming part of the crowd. If he’s honest, he also usually doesn't like the people who show up to them with a few exceptions he can count on one hand, maybe two on a good day. The rest of them are the jocks he can’t stand, the cheerleaders he doesn’t think much of, and generally the rest of the popular kids at school he manages to tolerate when he needs to. No Tony, Justin and Jeff disappeared hours ago, neither Zach nor Sheri are here, and then there’s Hannah. Honestly she’s why he came, Justin had been trying for a week to get him to come and Clay prided himself in his resistance to it all, even the eyes, but that crumbled when the other boy ‘casually’ mentioned she would be here.

She is, talking with Jess awkwardly on the other side of the room and he wants to go over but can’t seem to find the nerve to. Every time he thinks the conversation is lapsing he makes a move to join her but then it picks up again and all his courage evaporates. He hates it but he can’t seem to make his body do what he wants and just go over and talk to her.

He ends up going upstairs, disgusted with party and himself but hoping against hope that if he sticks around, he may get a chance later. Once up there, he realizes that it’s much better. Quieter and less claustrophobic and he heads further back, enjoying that the sound dulls with every step. He doesn't know the inside of the building, it’s the Walkers’ house and that’s part of the reason he didn’t want to come in the first place but now that he’s here, he has no idea what door leads where. He guesses it wouldn’t matter if he did because he doesn't know exactly what he’s looking for but he does know to avoid the doors with socks on them.

He finds two bathrooms before finding a bedroom and decides it’s good enough to take a seat on the floor. The bed is empty, made neatly with a dark gray comforter and it looks comfortable but it’s wrong to sit on someone else’s bed...even if it’s probably just a guest room, maybe not though the room looks like someone might live in it. He can still sort of hear the music thumping downstairs but it’s duller and he can’t hear any people distinctly which he counts as a plus. For a few moments he just sort of sits with his back against the bed enjoying the feeling of being his own person again. He never wants to come to one of these again for as long as he lives. No matter what Justin says, they aren’t any fun at all.

He manages to relax finally when a strange noise reaches him. He isn’t sure if it’s been there the whole time or if it just started but he holds his breath trying to figure out where it’s coming from and then moves around the room, certain it’s something in here. He stops in front of the closet and then slowly reaches for the doorknob. He can almost see a scene out of a horror movie with him opening it and finding some horrible monster but instead he finds something much worse.

Curled up in the bottom of the closet is Justin, hyperventilating with pupils massive covering the pale blue almost completely. Clay drops to one knee and opens his mouth but can’t make any sound come out, fear grips him. It’s a panic attack, that’s obvious he’s suffered through enough of his own to recognize it but he doesn’t know what to do. He’s only ever had them at home and his parents got him through them but he never paid much attention to what they did.

He’s tempted to go find someone else, anyone who might be able to help him more but...Justin needs someone now. Clay can remember being trapped in his own head and _needing_ someone and no one coming fast enough, seconds seemed like hours and Justin must have been in here for a while, at least since before Clay came into the room and that’s a long time to have to deal with one of these. He takes a deep breath trying to collect his thoughts.

“Justin?” He’s relieved the boy looks at him even if Clay sort of doubts he has any idea what’s going on. “I need you to breath okay? Just copy me: in, two, three, out, two, three, in, two, three, out, two, three.” He repeats it several times and Justin doesn’t really deepening his breath too much at first but after a few repetitions he manages to slow it a little. “You’re doing great just keep it up.”

“Bryce?”

It’s the first coherent thing he’s said since Clay found him and since they’re in Bryce’s house, he can only be so upset.

“Sorry Justin, it’s me, Clay?”

He tries not to let it hurt when Justin’s eyes go from hopeful to disinterested. He doesn’t fully know where to go from here either because Justin’s kind of calm and lucid now but he thinks this is when his parents would give him his anxiety medication and let it do the rest.

He’s sort of saved from having to make a complicated decision by the door opens.

“And here we have the bes-what the fuck are you doing in here?”

He turns around to see Bryce with a girl behind him looking confused and not especially angry but definitely creeped out. He realizes belatedly that Bryce probably can’t see Justin and so just sees someone he doesn’t really know crouched down in front of what Clay numbly thinks must be his closet. 

“I need your help.” It kills him to say that, he’s never wanted to need Bryce for anything a day in his life but Justin asked for him so maybe that’s because Bryce knows what to do.

“You need help alr-”

Clay moves before he can finish the sentence so he can see Justin and he’s...disappointed? He had sort of expected Bryce to worry or freak out or something. Instead the older boy sighs and looks over his shoulder to say something to the girl he’s with. He assumes it isn’t great because she huffs and walks away looking annoyed. For his part, Bryce walks over to the closet and hauls Justin up. Clay almost protests that he should be a little gentler because it alarms Justin but he guesses maybe his tone compensates for that.

“Come on Justy aren’t we a bit old to be doing this?”

Justin sways unsteadily but ends up leaning against the older boy. “Bryce?”

“Yeah it’s me brother. Let’s get you taken care of.”

It turns out Bryce’s idea of ‘taken care of’ involves a joint which he makes from the weed he apparently keeps in his nightstand drawer. He sits Justin down on his bed and tells him to keep his head between his knees while he goes about making it. He doesn’t talk other than to remind Justin not to move and to take deep breaths. Once it’s finished, he passes it to Justin. Clay sort of thinks he should leave because he isn’t needed but he also isn’t in the way, actually if anything he’s been forgotten by the other two because while he smokes, Justin softly mumbles questions to Bryce who answers them in a short, professional way. Nothing Justin asks gives him any idea what might have started the attack.

More than that, he’s not impressed. Everyone in the school knows that Bryce and Justin are old friends, that they’ve known each other for years. Before Clay knew Justin, he assumed the relationship was skin deep because, ashamed as he is to admit it now, he didn’t think Justin was capable of anything deeper. He knows different now and the more time he spends with Justin and Justin’s friends, or at least Zach, the more he’s proven wrong. He thought it would be the same with Bryce since they have such a long history but this conversation is not only incredibly superficial, it’s also painfully stilted.

Justin seems to want more and Bryce doesn’t seem all that interested in him. In fact from what he’s picked up, Justin asked about his chances with a girl and Bryce replied something about them being better before this. The already awkward conversation gets even worse after that but thankfully for all parties it doesn’t last too much longer because Justin is falling asleep leaning on Bryce and once the younger boy is out, Bryce sort of slides out from under him, grabs the mostly finished blunt and dumps it in the trash, lays him out on the bed, tugs his sneakers off, tosses a blanket over him, and goes to leave.

“That’s it?”

Bryce seems surprised but whether it’s because he forgot Clay was there or because he just didn’t expect someone to question him, Clay doesn't know.

“Justin’s a big boy even when he doesn’t act like it. He doesn’t need me sticking around to wipe his ass. The weed’ll keep him calm and he should sleep it off.”

He frowns, still thinking there should be more to this. “He asked for you. You were the only thing that he could think of through this.”

Bryce gives him a weird look and then understanding dawns on him; Clay hates it. “You have some kind of hero’s complex don’t you? You think you can save people right?” He pauses but Clay can’t say anything, words fail him right then and Bryce must take that as a confirmation because he continues. “Listen Jensen. Justy is my brother, I’ve known him forever and I know a lot things you clearly haven’t figured out yet. You can’t save someone like Justin, the best you can do is occasionally throw them a bone to keep them loyal to you.”

“What do you mean you can’t save him?”

Bryce raises an eyebrow and looks at him unimpressed. “And you’re supposed to be smart. Listen Jensen, Justy’s damaged goods, kid is a mess and too far gone for anyone to help, the sooner you figure that better. If you want to babysit him go ahead. Like I said, he’ll sleep for the rest of the night so it’ll be pretty boring. If he does wake up and starts freaking out again I have something stronger in the medicine cabinet that’ll knock him back out. _I’m_ going to go enjoy myself.”

He’s gone just like that and Clay doesn’t feel anything for several minutes, can’t feel anything because if he does he isn’t sure what he’ll do. If he stays numb he can think about things more clinically rather than going and picking a fight with Bryce he can’t win. Does he think he can save Justin and from what? At the moment his answer would be a shitty friend but he knows there’s more probably much more concerning things even if he isn’t sure what they are yet.

He looks at the boy sleeping on the bed and sort of spaces out for a while thinking. When he comes to he realizes he has a few texts from Jeff asking if he needs a ride home and one from Dad asking if he’s alright and when he’ll be home. He replies to Jeff apologizing for not seeing his messages and says he’s going to walk then tells Dad he’s fine and says he’ll be leaving soon. Only one of those is really true but all well. 

Bryce was right about one thing, Justin’s slept soundly aside from rolling over once or twice, and it’s almost eleven. He doesn’t know how long it’ll take him to get home but sooner is probably better so he stands and makes for the front door. Downstairs things are quieter but there are still a lot of people around. Getting outside isn’t that hard though and he runs into Alex who he didn’t even know was here. 

The other boy looks him up and down and then says, “Looks like you had a great time.”

He rolls his eyes and doesn’t bother to reply to it instead asking, “What are you doing out here?”

“Going home I think. I came out to get some air but everyone who’s left in there is too drunk or high to be any fun.”

“You don’t believe in getting wasted at parties? Come on Alex get with the times, it’s what all the kids are doing.”

The other boy laughs. “My dad is a cop and my mom is a nurse, if I come home even slightly fucked up they’ll be all over me and it’s no fun watching everyone else get more and more stupid if I can’t have a little buzz to make their annoying shit worth it.”

They sort of agree to walk home together without saying anything and it’s good. He likes Alex, the other boy is clever and funny and Clay is mercifully spared being the subject of his biting humor. Alex regales him with stories that always have a slightly mean edge to them but are funny all the same, besides he doesn’t know or like most of the people in he stories so the laughter isn't fake. Despite laughing though, his mind and heart really aren’t in it and Alex catches on.

“Anyway Monty decided to pick a fight with the old lady and he probably would have punched her but she smacked him with her purse while yelling about the youth of today. Monty turned tail and ran.” He gives a laugh belatedly.

“Come on Clay, that was funny. Quality stuff and that little laugh is all I get? What’re you thinking about so much.”

“You-you hang out with the jocks right? Bryce and Justin and all them?”

He nods.

“How do you like it?”

Alex sort of shrugs a look of pain crosses his face briefly but it’s gone quickly and Alex replies, “They’re friends just not very good ones, or very smart ones.”

“What about Bryce, what’s he like?”

“A dick. You already know this why bother asking?”

“Is he a dick to everyone though?”

“Pretty much. He sort of leaves Zach alone and Jeff is safe too but not really anyone else.”

“Not even Justin?”

Alex gives him a thoughtful look. “It’s weird. Bryce is as mean to him as he is most other people but it’s less about what he says and more about what he doesn’t say.”

“What do you mean?”

Alex sighs and after a moment replies, “It might just be me imagining things but it always seems like Justin’s looking for Bryce’s approval, maybe not always but a lot of the time and Bryce sort of...ignores him? It’s hard to explain and again maybe it isn’t even real but that’s the impression I get.”

“Do you think he’s a bad friend?”

“Justin? Well you’re probably friendlier with him than me but I like him enough, when he isn’t trying to impress Bryce he’s pretty nice.”

“I meant Bryce.”

A snort. “Bryce is a bad person of course he’s a bad friend. Why are you even asking?”

He does feel a little dumb because he’s always thought Bryce is the worst but maybe he’s just hoping to be wrong, at least where Justin is concerned. Hoping maybe today's interaction was a fluke, a bad day for Bryce or something, maybe he spoke in anger.

When he doesn’t reply Alex prompts, “Why the sudden interest in Bryce? You’ve always been consistent on your opinion of him in the past.”

He doesn’t know how to answer that so he doesn't and instead asks another question. “Do you know why Justin gets into so many fights?” He’s sure Alex has noticed the bruises because he’s usually really observant and he’s sure the other boy has asked since he’s kind of nosy and also extremely blunt and pretty rude, not that Clay is one to talk.

Alex gives him an odd look. “What’s with twenty questions on my friends?”

He opens his mouth to reply but Alex shakes his head, “Never mind. Justin’s from a rough neighborhood I’m sure fights are just a part of living there. Dad says even the police usually avoid going there after dark cause of how bad it is.”

His frown deepens and Alex sort of rolls his eyes. “You’re thinking too much Clay.”

“Maybe you’re right it’s just-” He stops short not sure what to say, what he can say.

Alex raises an eyebrow “Just?”

He sighs, “I don’t know, nothing I guess.”

“Good now stop moping and start laughing at my jokes, I have to save the best one for you, they’re wasted on everyone else but tonight it feels like they’re being wasted anyway.” 

He laughs at that one. Alex is too smart for most of his friends anyway. The rest of the walk is better and when he texts Justin the next day, he seems fine so maybe it was just a bad trip or something like that? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to him but it’s an explanation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to another chapter, featuring everyone's favorite sarcastic asshole and everyone's least favorite asshole, a two for one! Hopefully you all enjoy, Bryce is a hard character to write, I hate him, but getting him right is hard and I appreciate the complexity of his character for it. Alex is also hard, getting his dry humor right is extremely difficult. I had fun with this one though, the challenge of it at least since the subject matter isn't very pleasant.
> 
> As for what comes next, it's the bonus 16th chapter I added later on, should be out Friday or Saturday. It'll be Tony's personal chapter and will explore his relationship with Justin the way the Matt and Lainie chapters did with them. I had the idea for it for a long time but if it didn't get written in this part, it wasn't happening.
> 
> Happy reading and I'm really excited to hear your comments. Bryce is an interesting character and I'd love to hear how you guys think I handled him and what you make of his and Justin's relationship.


	14. Understanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony didn’t plan on babysitting tonight but he also can’t say he really regrets it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to another chapter! This is the 'bonus' chapter of sorts, it's the one I added on after all the others were mostly written because the idea wouldn't leave me alone and it gave me a way to make the beginning of part three work. Here we see Tony and Justin interact together and come out better for it instead of worse!
> 
> Next chapter should be Tuesday and next Friday or Saturday the final one! Next will be a late night visit and questionable decision making, so that should be fun. I have several chapters of Part 3 finished which is nice but I'm not nearly as far ahead in it as I was with this one at the end of Part 1 so the posting of part 3 might be slower.
> 
> Happy reading and let me know what you think in the comments!

Tony buries his hands further in his pockets and wishes he could walk faster but he’s too cold to pick up his pace. He probably should have worn something warmer but it’s that time of year when the sun going down could drop the temperature to the forties or lower or have no change at all and he was banking on the latter but of course got the former. It isn’t so bad, at least he’s trying to convince himself of that. Dinner will be ready when he gets home and it’ll be hot so that should help warm him up but he’s sort of far from home which sucks. 

He opts to take a shortcut through a park that’ll shave almost ten minutes off his trip which sounds really good on paper but in practice ends up adding a lot more time to his trip. That’s because he ends up finding Justin in the park...asleep on one of the benches with his jacket wrapped around him like a blanket. He doesn’t think twice about nudging the boy awake but he’s sort of surprised by how alarmed Justin looks when he wakes up. In his defense, this park is about the ugliest place in the city and for that reason no one really uses it so Justin probably didn’t expect anyone to wake him up. In all honesty, if it weren’t for the pale blue and white jacket, Tony might not have even noticed him in the dark.

“Justin? Come on you can’t sleep on a bench.”

The younger boy looks at him for a moment and Tony can tell he has no idea what’s going on, until he does. His face loses all color, and it didn’t have much to begin with, and even though Tony has never seen it, he imagines this is what the expression “a deer in headlights” looks like. He feels a little bad, Justin’s afraid of him and it isn’t entirely surprising, the Padilla name carries come clout with it in this neighborhood and Justin has lived here all his life, he knows all about it. It might hurt a little that Justin’s afraid of him but it doesn’t really bother him, he’s used to it. That’s one of the best things about Clay, he has no idea about any of that and Tony can just be Tony around him.

“Shouldn’t you go home?” He only asks cause he can see Justin shivering and it’s not going to get any warmer, actually it’s probably going to get colder.

“Yea, I should. Thanks for-waking me up I must have fallen asleep by accident.” 

“Right.” He could ask a lot, maybe should but Justin has some amount of pride and Tony knows better than to mess with a man’s pride, especially when it’s all he’s got. Justin pulls himself to his feet but the movements looked pained. They start walking and it’s silent, Tony’s never believed in idle chatter and Justin apparently isn’t up for filling the silence. When they pass under a street light that actually works, Tony discreetly studies the other boy and doesn’t like what he finds. He can see a nasty bruise on the side of Justin’s head and another on his cheek. He’s walking slow and Tony’s sure it isn’t exclusively because of the cold. 

Justin stops in front of a house, Tony assumes it’s his but the look on his face isn’t one of someone coming home. He knows things at the Foley residence aren’t always great, Amber has as much a reputation as his family does and it may be even more negative. Tony doesn’t pretend to know all the details but he’s not naive enough to take Justin’s explanation of a fight at face value, especially because he’s never heard of or seen Justin in a fight at school or around the neighborhood. Looking at the boy now, he has a feeling he knows where all those ‘fights’ take place and since Amber is a pathetic creature, that leaves the parade of men she’s gained her reputation for.

“Do you want to come back to my place?” He wants to say he doesn’t offer out of pity’s sake but that isn’t true, at least it isn’t solely out of pity.

Justin looks at him and then the looming house and back. Once again he tries not to let it hurt that somehow he might be scarier than whatever goes on at Justin’s house. He also knows how to convince Justin to come with him because frankly it’s too cold to be out here longer than necessary. “My mom’s made dinner.”

Justin opens his mouth but his stomach rumbles at the mention of food. Tony raises his eyebrow, daring him to say he isn’t hungry and Justin blushes. 

“Your family wouldn’t mind?” He looks embarrassed, scared, and shy.

They’ll mind that he’s super late but that not that he’s brought company, his brothers may give a hard time but he can deal with that. “Of course not.” 

He keeps his voice calm hoping to reassure the other boy and it seems to work because Justin does eventually reply, “Yeah sure, I’ll-come.”He wonders if the sound of breaking glass in the house has something to do with it.

Tony nods his head and motions for Justin to follow him which he does, somewhat reluctantly but Tony’ll take it, he doesn’t want to leave Justin outside tonight and really doesn’t want to send him home.

He tries picking up his pace a little to make up for lost time and to get them inside sooner but even though Justin matches it, it’s clearly unsustainable for him. Tony slows down for him and Justin gives him a grateful, if still hesitant smile.

When they do get inside, he pauses to take Justin’s coat using it as a reason to observe the boy in better lighting. He doesn’t look good, besides the bruises he noticed earlier, the younger boy is paler than he should be and even though Tony can’t see any, he’s sure there are more bruises lurking under the ratty long-sleeved shirt Justin’s wearing. He hangs the jackets up and claps Justin on the back.

“Breathe Justin. I promise my mom’s-”

“Antonio? Is that you? Where you have been dinner was supposed to be thirty minutes ago?”

Thankfully it’s Mom who asks. Her voice is loud but only because she’s calling from the kitchen, the tone is gentle, Justin only flinches slightly. He motions for the younger boy to follow and leads him into the kitchen where Mom is standing over the stove. He walks over and gives her a kiss on the cheek, partly because he feels bad for maybe making her worry and partly so she’ll hopefully take his side when Dad goes to chew him out.

“Sorry Ma, I walked slower than I thought and ran into a friend. This is Justin.”

Both of the other occupants eyes go wide though for totally different reasons. “I wish you told me you were bringing a friend. Would you set another spot for him? Oh and can you call up to your father and sister and let them know dinner is ready?”

A few minutes later they’ve said grace and the painfully awkward meal has begun. He’s happy his brothers are out but his sister is staring at the bruise on Justin’s face and Dad is just staring at Justin. Mom thankfully is trying to play nice, leading the conversation with all the grace of a proper hostess and it might be helping but he can’t really tell. She doesn’t comment on Justin’s face and instead asks him easy questions, about school, how he and Tony know each other, things like that. Justin seems to like her, if nothing else he seems relieved that someone isn’t staring at him. He laughs a little when she calls Clay an ‘odd boy’. She obviously appreciates that Justin’s an eater, and mumbles to Tony in Spanish she wishes he approached dinner with Justin’s appetite. He rolls his eyes but doesn’t mind. She blushes and looks pleased when Justin tells her that the pork and beans are the best thing he’s ever eaten.

After saying that it seems dinner might be salvaged because there’s air in the room again and it’s still quiet but now only half as awkward as before. In fact, they finish the meal and Mom has finished trying to get everyone to go back for seconds and thirds. The plates have started being cleared and of course Graciella decides to kill the dream of this not being a disaster.

“What happened to your face?” All of the air leaves the room.

He almost parrots Justin’s usual excuse and tells her it was a fight but that seems like a bad idea. 

Justin though is a quicker thinker than Tony would have given him credit for. “You look like a Spongebob fan, are you?” She nods smiling a little at the familiar name. “Have you seen the episode where he gives himself a black eye?” She nods again and Justin lowers his voice to whisper loudly in a conspiratorial voice, “I did it like that.” 

Tony relaxes as she giggles and brings the cup he’s been holding since she asked up the rest of the way to his face for a sip.

“You must be pretty dumb if that happened to you.”

He almost chokes and both of his parents go to scold her but Justin speaks first and with the same easy smile, “Yea but it’s not all bad, I get some pretty funny stories out of it.”

After that Dad is quick to remind her she still has homework to finish and she leaves the table to do that. The tension is back now and Mom makes herself scarce to clean up in the kitchen which leave Tony, his dad, and Justin and Justin obviously wants to get away and wanted to do it a while ago.

He stands, hoping to put Justin out of his misery and take him upstairs but a look from Dad stops him. The man leans forward, elbows on the table hands laced in front of his face, and looks at Justin who’s trying really hard not to squirm and only sort of succeeding. Tony’s still pretty impressed, he’s seen a lot of others wilt under the same stare.

“So Justin, I never heard your last name.” It could be conversational but there’s an edge that a lot of people might miss, Clay did, but a lot of people don’t. Justin doesn’t.

“Foley.” Tony’s impressed again, Justin manages to keep his tone pretty level even though Tony knows he’s terrified.

Dad nods, a sharp jerking motion. “That’s a nasty pair of bruises. I appreciate you not telling Graciella where they came from but why don’t you tell me the truth.” It could be a question, but it’s not said as one.

“A fight sir.”

The man raises an eyebrow _“He doesn’t look like someone who picks fights.”_

Tony realizes it’s directed at him and also in Spanish, he replies in kind. _“He didn’t say he picked them, or that they were fair fights.”_

_“Do you have a fondness for him? You brought him home.” _

Tony feels his mouth go dry. Does he? He’s never thought much of Justin in all honesty, at least not much before he stayed with Clay for that week a few months ago. He’s known something was going on, anyone who knows Amber Foley even a little...which is everyone who lives down here, knows she doesn’t date kind men. It didn’t bothered him before but it does now. Justin is good for Clay and if he’s honest, he likes Justin a little himself even if they don’t spend much time together. Clay’s tried to get the three to hang out at one time but Tony’s well aware Justin’s afraid of anyone with the last name Padilla, he’s lived here all his life after all. He usually invents something to do to get out of those things because Justin should be able to enjoy some time with a friend and not have to worry for a while. Despite the lack of time, he still finds himself liking Justin.

_“I am.”_

The man nods. _“We’ll talk later, why don’t you two go have fun.”_

He feels some tension leave him as he stands, thanks him and motions for Justin to follow. They go up to his room, it’s the smallest but he doesn’t have to share it so the tradeoff works well enough for him. It’s awkward, he should have expected as much given the trend so far. They both make attempts to get a conversation going because there isn’t much to do besides that but he knows nothing about basketball or sports in general and Justin doesn’t seem to know much about cars, camping or the outdoors. Eventually he ends up turning on the little TV and that helps, the cartoons are mindless enough for both of them to space out watching. 

Justin starts to squirm after about an hour and a half and Tony glances at the time. It’s almost midnight, he stands and walks over to the small dresser. It takes a few moments of rifling through the stacks of folded clothes for him to find a pair of hand-me-downs that are the best chance he has to fit Justin and digs out a loose fitting shirt. He passes both of them to the other boy he looks at him with alarmed eyes.

He resists the urge to roll his. “I assume you want to wear something clean to bed. Do you need to use the shower?”

There are too many emotions on Justin’s face for him to try to figure it out, the last few hours have been stressful and he’d like to go to sleep, he can put off his shower until tomorrow but he has a feeling that either Justin’s clothes are dirty or he is because something’s sort of started to smell a bit. Too bad going to bed involves Justin showering and the boy moving because he still isn’t.

In fact, he’s still just staring wide eyed and tense. Tony sighs. “You didn’t think I was going to let you go back to that park bench did you?”

He ducks his head and Tony sighs, leaving the clothes on the back of the chair Justin’s sitting in. “Listen to me.” He waits for Justin to look up at him. “If something happens at home, no matter what it is, and you don’t think you can go back there for some reason, any reason at all, you come here. Understand?” He tries to use the voice Dad uses when he’s doing his firm but fair thing, let Justin know he’s being serious but also not scare him. He’s not sure how well it works because the younger boy doesn’t look very convinced.

“I mean it. You’re a good kid Justin I don’t want you freezing in the park.”

“Thanks.” Low and grateful. Tony isn’t sure he likes it, it doesn't sound like Justin but maybe he just doesn’t know the boy as much as he thought he did, after all, he’s been ignoring a problem he’s known about for a long time. He reaches out and ruffles Justin’s hair, the initial stiffening gives way to Justin sort of leaning into it. It’s kind of cute.

“Any time, I mean it, come up and ring the bell anytime you need.”

They don’t say much after that, Tony brings him to the bathroom and sets him up with what he needs and returns to his room. He sets about getting the sleeping bag ready and it takes some maneuvering to grab and a little more to make enough space for it on the floor where the door opening won’t hit it. By the time he’s done, Justin is coming back in and goes to settle down in the sleeping bag. Tony shoos him over to the bed. 

“If you’re staying here you get the bed. I expect you to be in it when I get back.” He doesn’t wait for a reply and goes to the bathroom himself, brushes his teeth and finds Justin...still looking at the bed.

“Justin?”

He spins around to look at Tony and manages a grin that’s a lot of things. Almost normal is thankfully one of them, it’s glowing with mischief and he says, “I know you think I should take the bed but I’m worried about your back. Clay always complains you’re an old man.”

Tony snorts but a grin makes it’s way over his face. “Clay is about the most uptight person I know, if anyone is the old man, it’s him. Take the bed Justin, this floor and I are old friends.”

He gently pushes the other boy into a seated position on it before going to the floor to unzip the sleeping bag. Justin’s apparently too tired to fight any further because he finally does what Tony says and gets into the bed, once he hears the zipper being closed he flicks off the light. Tony half expects a problem even after that but he hears the younger boy’s breathing even out pretty quickly and it’s clear he’s asleep. That’s enough for him to nod off.

The next morning is interesting, more so than usual. Mornings in general are always chaos in the Padilla house just because of so many moving parts, his brothers all came back sometime last night or early this morning which brings it the total number to full plus one and the plus one is very much felt. It’s not that Justin’s disruptive, in fact the opposite, few house guests could claim the grace Justin can in learning and adapting to another house. 

He doesn’t take up time in the bathroom, helps Mom with breakfast, and manages to be out the door before two of his brothers are even awake. It’s just that one of his brothers is awake and for one reason or another, recognize him. It’s awkward and uncomfortable and he knows right away they’ll tease him for having a Foley over before too long. Dad catches Justin on the way out though and that even worse, he bids Justin goodbye and tells him to stop by more often which Tony thinks nearly causes the other boy to faint. Later Dad then offers to ‘help’ whatever man is dating Amber at the moment. It’s a tempting offer, he may need to take him up on that.

It’s on the tip of his tongue to tell Clay when he picks him up but he decides not to. Clay wouldn’t understand this kind of thing, he’s been trying for weeks to figure it out, since Justin stayed with him but he hasn’t gotten anywhere yet. Tony would be surprised if Clay didn’t have such a sheltered upbringing. He’s pretty sure of all the scenarios his friend might have put together only the ones that seem most outlandish to him are the ones with any semblance of the truth. 

That naivety is something he wants to protect in Clay, something he and Justin never had the luxury of growing up where they did. He’ll just keep an eye on Justin himself and may take his dad up on the offer to help Justin their way. For his part, it’s almost like a switch is flipped in Justin. The boy is still somewhat awkward around him but he’s not outright afraid and Tony’ll take that. It’s clear he still prefers Clay, Zach, Bryce, and probably Jess to all of them but Justin doesn’t tense and clam up when he comes around and they spend more time as a group, him, Justin, and Clay. It’s nice, he enjoys it.


	15. Undercover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Justin is going to give Clay gray hair. At this point it’s just a fact, well maybe not. Maybe by twenty instead of having gray hair, he’ll none cause he’s torn it all out. Also thanks to Justin.

Clay’s sitting at his desk doing homework and trying to pretend he isn’t cold. There’s a huge storm outside, pouring rain and driving wind and hearing it whip around the house makes him shiver. He’s glad he’s inside, dressed in warm sweatpants and a hoodie and has even stooped so low as to wrap a spare blanket around his shoulders and yet he still feels the chill. Headphones are probably the sensible solution to block out the sound but he won’t get his homework done if he does that...and both his parents are home and he doesn't listen to music when they are because he’d be mortified if they caught him singing.

Something changes.

The tapping on the window gets louder and more consistent and no longer sounds like rain. He glances over at it but remembers the curtains are closed and now is too annoyed by the sound to try ignoring it. With a huff he crosses the room and pulls them back. He doesn’t know what he expected to find out there but Justin is not it. Even through the window he can tell the other boy is soaked and cold and he fumbles with the lock, unable to make his body move as fast as he wants it to. 

As soon as he does get it open he hisses, “What are you doing?” There’s a lot of things he could specify; it’s forty degrees and raining, that Justin’s on his _roof_, it’s late, and probably a half dozen more he could name if he had a little more time to think.

“I was on my way home from Bryce’s and what do you know, turns out the fifties flood...like really bad. I can’t get home and I couldn’t get back to Bryce’s and you were the only person I could reach.” He says it with a self deprecating grin but to be fair, Clay didn’t know the fifties flood, it’s been a while since they got this much rain.

So that’s how he ends up with a soaking wet Justin dripping on his floor. He couldn’t just leave him out there, especially not in this. He doesn’t really know what to do with him though and finally says.

“I’ll get Mom to -”

“No!”

“No?”

“I- your mom is a nice lady, I don’t want her to worry, or try to drive me home.”

“I have to tell them you’re here.”

“Do you? It’s only for a night, I can be gone before any of you even wake up and-” He sounds panicked.

“What are you afraid of?” It’s the only thing he can come up with, that Justin is afraid of something and that’s why he doesn’t want Clay to tell. It doesn’t make a lot of sense though, Mom and Dad love Justin, lately they’ve even gone so far as to try to get Clay to invite him over more often. Trying a new recipe for dinner? See if Justin wants to come. They’re going out and leaving Clay alone? Ask Justin to come keep him company. Nothing special is going on at all? Perfect time to invite Justin over. It’s a little annoying and completely ridiculous but also Justin has no reason to be afraid about coming over, not that Clay can see.

The thing is, he’s pretty sure they’re worried, he even accused them of being so after one really awkward exchange and they had flustered, well Dad had, Mom hadn’t but one was good enough. He’d tried questioning them on it, asking why they were nervous and of course they denied that they were, it was a lie but he couldn’t make them tell him anything. The thing is...he’s nervous too, since the party and Bryce’s comments...putting that out of his mind has been really hard.

The other boy opens his mouth and then closes it and then tries again but his face scrunches up and a sneeze comes out instead, followed by a two others and when he’s done he just looks at Clay pathetically and says, “Please?”

He should say no, and tell his mom, should try to convince Justin to try talking to her or at least try to figure out why he’s afraid but his eyes are so desperate that he finds himself saying instead, “Fuck. Fine but you have to do what I say and if they catch us Mom will make you answer.”

Justin nods eagerly and Clay goes over to his dresser and pulls clothes out and shoves them at him, then leads him to the bathroom, grabs him a towel and pulls him into the bathroom. 

The younger boy looks at him awkwardly and when Clay doesn't leave he says, “Umm you’re not going to stay right?”

He rolls his eyes, “Well if you’re not here then I have to be the one in the shower and if they happen to come up and find me in my room while the water is running that’s a problem.”

“Oh. Right. Well turn around.”

He rolls his eyes again and spins around to look at the door. It’s boring...staring at the door but it also gives him a lot of time to think about what he knows about Justin: he’s poor, lives in a rough neighborhood, and gets into a lot of fights that he always seems to lose. As a result he often comes to school walking funny and is alarmingly good at applying make-up to cover it. He’s an excellent liar, or excellent at concealing his feelings depending on who you ask. His poker face is a smile Clay hates and half the girls in the school have fallen for. He’s...weirdly tactile. That is to say, he seems to crave close, physical affection in the form of hugs and more generally in any way he can manage as long as it isn’t too obvious. It’s hard to tell if he’s totally aware of it all the time and the few times Clay has mentioned it, Justin’s been embarrassed. He’s twice as cuddly when he’s sleeping. He can eat, and when he does he’ll clean whatever plate is put in front of him. He devours food like he’s starving and he stress eats, sometimes to the point of throwing up...or he has at least once. People seem to doubt his intelligence, maybe more than that, they seem to doubt he’s anything more than a pretty face that can play basketball. Those who know his mother’s reputation think he’ll be the same as her.

Actually his mom is a category all her own. Clay doesn’t know who the worst person he’s ever met is but it’s definitely her or Bryce. Her defining characteristic seems to be a total apathy towards everything, including Justin. She works at a job she hates and does so high, uses her breaks to get high again and have sex, and is unpleasant as long as it doesn’t take too much effort. Worse, she never comes to his games, Clay’s now been to five and hasn’t seen her once. Then there was the E.R. trip a while ago. Dad said she had called and asked him to pick Justin up and take him and at the time Clay had been too worried about Justin, who had looked really bad, to question it but why would she have Dad’s number? 

Zach and Bryce. It’s weird, plain and simple. He adores Zach, talks about the other boy all the time. Their interactions are natural together, they laugh and joke and Justin looks free and happy when he’s with Zach and they’re as incredibly attuned to each other on the basketball court as off. As far as Clay can tell, Zach reciprocates the affection, even at times resembling some sort of guardian looming protectively around the boy. And yet _Bryce_ is his best friend. Bryce is an ass, self centered, isn’t willing to change his plans when Justin is having a panic attack in his closet, and according to Alex, seems to have a special, cruel way of dealing with Justin he doesn’t do to anyone else. Despite this, Justin still loves Bryce, it’s obvious by the almost reverence he uses when talking about him and Clay thinks there’s something he’s missing.

When the water does go off he hears fumbling and the shower curtain moving and then other noises for a towel being used and clothes being pulled on so he figures it’s safe to turn around.

He’s half right, Justin has pants on but no shirt and he doesn't like what he sees, the younger boys arms are bruised pretty badly and there are a couple marks on his chest. Justin blushes when he catches him staring and then hurriedly pulls a shirt on to cover the damage.

“Those-look bad.”

“They uhh they don’t feel great.”

He’s surprised to say the least, it’s the first time Justin’s admitted anything close to being in pain. He pushes past Justin to the medicine cabinet and finds some painkillers but after a moment of looking at the bottles reaches back to touch Justin’s forehead. He knows it’s what his parents do to check when he’s sick, or did since it hasn’t happened in years but Justin flinches away and gives him an odd look. The skin felt warm but Justin’s also a living person so it should feel warm right? He isn’t sure if the heat he felt was natural or sickness. He decides cautious is best and passes Justin pain and fever reducers which the other boy swallows dry.

They return to his room in silence and Clay closes the door most of the way. Justin is picking at the sleeve of the hoodie Clay gave him and looks uncomfortable. He has a feeling the younger boy knows what’s coming. 

“Where did those come from.”

“A fight.” He says it easily and if Clay was in a different mood, he might let it go.

“You sure?”

A grin, “Yea where else did you think I got them from?”

“If something is wrong, you know you can tell me right?”

“Thanks Clay, that-means a lot.” He tries for casual but his voice is thick and sort of heavy and he waits expecting something more but it doesn’t come. Justin’s stopped picking at the sleeves and gives him a smile, not the Foley smile, one he could almost trust if it wasn’t so damn sad. He wants to say more, wants to push but...Tony said he couldn’t force Justin to tell and he might make things worse if he tries. It leaves a pit in his stomach.

“Come on, we still have a few stars left to get, or I could be persuaded to kick your ass at Mario Kart.”

Clay snorts, “64 it is, you get loud when you lose.”

Justin pretends to look offended and about a half hour later they’re sitting on the couch passing a controller back and forth and it feels normal. 

Well normal except that Justin keeps sneezing, The first few times he holds his nose closed but Clay nags him about blowing his ear drums by doing that and a description of what that entails is enough to convince him to try stifling them some other way. Apparently it isn’t enough because at some point he hears Dad call up to ask if he’s okay.

Justin looks at him in panic and his mind blanks for a moment. Obviously he can’t say Justin’s sneezing but if he says he is than his parents might think he’s sick and come up. 

“I’m fine! Just practicing sneezing!”

Justin gives him a look in incredulity and he shoots a glare back.

“Practicing sneezing?” Dad sounds unconvinced.

“Yea for the ugh, school play. I thought I might audition this year and expand my horizons like you’re always telling me to do.

“So you’re practicing sneezing?”

He looks at Justin in panic not sure what to say and the other boy shrugs his shoulders, eyes wide before he mouths, “Snow White?”

“Yea it’s Snow White and no one wants to play that dwarf.” Good thinking Justin.

“Well...okay. If you need to practice lines with someone let me know.”

Justin gives him a weird look.

“Um yeah thanks Dad!”

When the man doesn’t reply he looks back at Justin who's still looking at him oddly. 

“What?”

He shakes his head and turns back to the game. “Nothing.” He pauses for a moment and then adds, “Your dad is pretty cool, offering to help. Come on let’s finish this area.”

They do and then turn in. Sleep doesn’t come easily for him, the wind is still howling outside the house and he can’t shake the chill. His feet are freezing, hands are numb, and he can't feel his nose, curling up into as tight a ball as he can doesn’t help nearly as much as it should. He could get up and get another but the spare he keeps in his room is over Justin which means he needs to go to the linen closet and that’s a long, cold walk on wooden floors. He can ignore it, probably.

He does somehow and even falls asleep until he’s woken up by a quiet, “Clay? Are you awake?”

“I am now.” He isn’t even fully sure who’s asking only that the voice woke him up and now he’s cold.

“Sorry.” 

Oh shit. He sits up and finds Justin doing the same on the couch, shivering slightly and looking tired.

“No, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to snap. Something wrong?” Besides everything, he vaguely thinks everything is wrong or at least it was before he went to bed.

“I shouldn’t have woken you up. It’s just-” He trails off and Clay can see his teeth chattering slightly.

“You’re cold?”

He nods, a faint blush on his cheeks, a loud gust shakes the house and cements his decision.

“Want to come sleep here?” Being half asleep definitely helps. If he was more awake he’d actually think about what he said and the possible implications but right now his brain is firmly not really working and that’s a good thing.

“You wouldn’t mind?” Justin sounds insecure and shy, two words he rarely ever associates with the other boy.

“Yea, I’m freezing. Come on, and bring that blanket.”

He regrets moving off his warm spot to make room but it’s worth it when Justin gets up and drapes the blanket around him like a cape to cross the room. He tosses it over the bed while Clay pulls the comforter up and Justin slides in. He feels the difference immediately and he thinks Justin does too, if the content sigh is anything to go by.

He settles back down and closes his eyes. He’s asleep again not long after.

The only indication Justin was ever there when he wakes up is the slight warm spot next to him and his window is unlocked. He’s disappointed somehow but sucks it up. They don’t talk about any of it the next day in school and Clay tactfully, at least he thinks it’s tactfully, doesn't comment on the fact that Justin’s still wearing his clothes. It’s a cold day anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going up later tonight than I meant so excuse the short note. 
> 
> The last chapter should be up Friday or Saturday and I'll tell you more about the next part then.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments!


	16. Covert Operations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Justin works hard to set Clay up with Hannah, too bad things don’t end in a way none of them foresaw.

His shift has just started when a small army of jocks come bumbling into the theater. Bryce leads them of course and somehow manages to balance pretending to be embarrassed by them with somewhat guiding them. Clay pretends a few of them don’t smell slightly of weed or beer because he doesn't get paid enough to deal with that...as long as they throw up in the toilets and flush if it comes to that. On the bright side, Justin is bringing up the rear and the other boy smiles at him brightly, cheerfully tells Monty to eat a dick when the boy insinuates something is going on between them, and thankfully doesn’t get into a fist fight. 

That could have been the end of all of this except it isn’t. Hannah is also on shift and Justin gives him a meaningful look when she starts talking to him. The moron spends a startlingly long time deliberating on snacks even though Clay knows he’s going to get sour patch kids and quietly promises to ‘help him out’. He rolls his eyes because he’s at work and doesn’t have time for this and Justin lets it go to catch up to his group.

His peace lasts about twenty minutes, the group arrived as the movie starts so it’s twenty minutes into the runtime of the two and a half hour movie before Justin appears at the snack counter again. Clay just looks at him for a moment.

“I don’t like horror movies.”

Simple enough explanation except. “Why did you come?”

He shrugs and pops a gummy into his mouth before offering the package to Clay.

“Where’s Hannah?”

“Cleaning theater four.”

“Good, how long will she be there?” He glances at the clock, she just went in so probably ten minutes, maybe fifteen if it’s really bad but Justin has a gleam in his eye that he really doesn’t like.

“Five? Probably about that.” What damage can Justin do in five minutes?

His face lights up like a Christmas tree and Clay tries to contain his groan. “Perfect, that’s enough time for the ‘Justin Foley Crash Course in Love’! Get out your notebooks and get ready!”

Clay gives him a baleful look and reminds him, “You know I’m at work.”

The grin gets broader, “Of course, workplace romances are common Clay, no need to be embra-”

“I mean I have to actually work.” He doesn’t know where Justin is going with that and he doesn’t want to know.

“Obviously.” Justin smile changes to pure mischief as he glances around the empty theater. “So many people here to help.”

Clay rolls his eyes but he can’t actually think of something to deny that with. 

“Alright let’s get started, how do you talk to Hannah?”

“How do I-Like a person Justin.”

Apparently that isn’t the right thing to say if the look on Justin’s face is anything to go by. “Alright pretend I’m Hannah. How do you start a conversation with me?”

He opens his mouth almost thinking of doing the ‘exercise’ before realizing it’s stupid. “How am I supposed to pretend you’re Hannah? She feminine.”

Justin doesn’t take offense, instead he smirks and clears his throat. “Hi Clay, tell me I’m pretty.” He pitches his voice higher and it’s alarmingly convincing as a lady but not as Hannah.

“The voice is wrong, disturbing but wrong. Needs to be a little lower and less conceited.”

“More like this? Clay, I need your big, thick,-”

Clay throws popcorn at him which gets Justin laughing. “Brain. I was going to say brain.”

“Sure and I-”

“Helmet! Can you grab me another bottle of the industrial strength cleaner? We’re all out!”

“Sure, in a sec.”

He leaves the counter and gives Justin a look. “I will be gone less than three minutes, if I come back and find the snacks destroyed, I’ll tell Zach you said his sister is the more intimidating Dempsey.”

Justin pales a little and Clay hurries to the supply closet, grabs the bottle Hannah needs, and gives it to her.

“Bad one?”

She rolls her eyes, “Some kid wet the chair. I guess we should start enforcing that rated M thing. I’m not cleaning up anymore pee.”

He makes a face and doesn’t continue that conversation.

Justin’s decided not to eat everything but is stacking the popcorn buckets in a pyramid. Clay rolls his eyes but Justin looks pretty proud of himself. He punches the other boy’s arm but apologizes when Justin hisses. The other boy just gives him a grin and shrugs and goes back to giving Clay dating advice but concludes that Clay is apparently ‘hopeless’.

“I could coach you!” His whole face suddenly lights up.

“What?” 

“Yeah look Hannah’s coming back I’ll hide and you’ll try to ask her out and I’ll help!”

“That’s-”

“She’s coming!”

Clay looks down the hall to see Hannah and by the time he turns back, Justin’s done a pretty good job of making himself scarce. Hannah rejoins him in the snack booth and sighs, “Well that’s twenty minutes I’m not getting back.”

“Not really, it’s more like four hours you aren’t getting back.”

She smiles a little, “Yeah.”

They lapse into silence, comfortable, not the awkward kind when she does or says something he doesn’t know how to reply to. Justin sort of appears at some point and Clay isn’t sure where he was before but he’s making motions telling Clay to do something. He’s standing where Hannah can’t see him, at least not for the moment and Clay resists the urge to roll his eyes. 

“So there’s going to be an awesome meteor shower next week.”

Hannah looks up at him interested, Justin looks horrified, he prefers Hannah’s expression.

“Oh and where will this shower be taking place?”

“About fifty million kilometres from us, Earth is at its closest to Mars which means its closest to the asteroid belt and what we’ll be seeing, the actual viewing season is between October and November but next week will be the best time for us to see it from here. This is the Orionids shower-” He sees Justin over Hannah’s shoulder frantically making a slashing movement across his throat. He looks back at Hannah who looks confused and is raising her eyebrow.

He clears his throat and opens his mouth to talk again. “They’re viewable with the naked eye, that means we don’t need a telescope to see them and as long as we get clear weather it should be really good and they’ll be really impressive and how many other people do you think will be able to say they stayed up all night to see it?”

Justin looks pained and Hannah looks amused and maybe slightly confused as well. “I don’t know helmet but I don’t think too many people will care. And who is this ‘we’ you keep talking about?”

“I mean I was just thinking that watching it alone might belonleyandthat’sobviousbut-”

Justin’s making a motion, taking deep breaths the messages is obvious, he takes one and then another, the younger boy nods approvingly and mouths ‘ask her’. He takes another deep breath and then says “Would you like to watch it with me?”

Hannah hums a smirk gracing her face and he’s aware that his palms are sweaty and he’s wringing his hands together and he thinks maybe his knees are shaking a little bit. “I don’t know, would it just be us? Or would it be us and Justin?”

He blinks about a dozen times and Justin grins sheepishly. “Why would- Justin-what?”

“Well I assumed he would be invited since he’s behind me.”

The younger boy approaches with a laugh announcing himself. “How’d you know?”

“Clay’s bad at eye contact but he usually looks at the ground not over my shoulder and he wasn’t being as...himself as usual. You came in with half the baseball team so it made sense.”

Justin offers a shrug that’s completely unapologetic. “I wasn’t invited, just you and this...stud.” Clay realizes they’re both looking at him and the back of his neck is sweating a little, his hands are clenched in fists, his face is probably bright red.

She hums, “I don’t know. I’ve never cared too much about space before.”

“Don’t toy with him like that.” While Hannah had been teasing, Justin sounded less amused.

Hannah hears it too and gives Justin a look before turning her attention to him. “I’d love to see this meteor shower with you Clay. It sounds like a lot of fun.”

He lets out a breath and he hadn’t been aware he was holding it.

Justin claps him on the back and says, “Congrats, I hope you two have fun. I should probably go before they miss me.”

The boy is at the theater door before Clay remembers, “You hate horror movies.”

Justin gives him a grin that doesn’t say much and waves before disappearing into the room.

He and Hannah iron out the details for their date. Even thinking the word fills him butterflies and he doesn’t remember the last time he felt so happy.

13RW13RW13RW13RW13RW

He’s still happy several hours later when he’s home and feels his phone buzzing. He fishes it out of his pocket and answers.

“Hello?”

“Clay? Is your mom home?”

“Tony?” He pulls the phone from his ear and looks down at the screen a smiling picture of the older boy stares back at him.

“Is she home?” He doesn’t like the tone of the other boys voice, it’s wild, angry, almost vicious. 

“Yea, she’s downstairs-”

“Go down and find her and put me on speaker phone I need to talk to both of you.”

He’s moving, out of his room and half way down but he can’t stop himself from asking, “What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you when your with your mother.”

He finds both her and Dad in the kitchen and motions her over to the table where he holds the phone between them and puts it on speaker.

“Okay she’s here.” Her expression is really confused and so is Dad’s, and they’re looking at him like he has the answers, in another situation it might be funny.

“Mrs. Jensen?”

“Tony?”

“Yes, are you sitting?”

“No? Tony what’s-”

“You should probably sit down.” He sounds calmer now, no longer like he might snap. Actually his voice is eerily calm and Clay’s only getting more nervous as he and Mom take seats.

“When I get off the phone with you I need you to go down to St. John’s. Justin’s being taken there right now. I don’t know much else besides that but-”

“What do you mean Justin is being taken to the hospital and why do we need to get down there?” Mom cuts him off, she looks angry, sounds it too.

“I mean what I said, Justin is in the hospital, or is on the way there. I don’t know the details but they can’t find Amber Foley-”

“Who is ‘they’?”

“The police.”

“Tony-” He can’t help that he sounds anxious because he is.”

“Just please come, it’ll be easier to explain in person.”

“We’ll be there in twenty.” Mom’s made up her mind it seems. 

“Good come into the regular waiting room.” The line goes dead and that’s it. They don’t bother to talk, shoes are put on, keys are grabbed, and they’re out the door in record time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And welcome to the end of part 2, hard to believe I've gotten this far and thank you to everyone who've been reading and commenting! This is actually a mashup of two different chapter ideas I had but neither proved long enough to be on their own and worked together nicely enough, something goofy and light hearted making way for what sets up the next part.
> 
> And speaking of that the next part is going to be a bit messy and I'm still not sure how I want to go about it. Originally I intended to keep it short like part 1 but that's already failed and then I had wanted to do half chapters, things that would be purely character driven and only be about half or 3/4th a normal chapter but then a number of them turned out pretty long so I'm still working on the idea. I think what I'll do is post chapters 1 and 2 of this on the schedule I've been following and then reassess after that and maybe change to a once a week depending on how productive I've been on writing.
> 
> In any case happy reading and I hope you all enjoy...and hope Daisy isn't too mad at me since she threatened to riot if something like this happened.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first chapter of part 2 and I hope you're all excited too! As I mentioned in the summery, I changed the timeline and my reason for moving it back is mostly because I set it too early. I found when I was writing some of the later chapters and in some of the content from the previous part that the characters seem to have too much history for only knowing each other a few months, Jeff seemed too friendly with Clay, Zach and Justin are too close, and most importantly, Justin and Clay seem to have too much history to all be built in the span of three months. This also lets me use a wider cast of characters although so far only one has appeared and the others may or may not in this part.
> 
> In any case, I'm very excited to be posting this next part although it isn't all finished yet. I don't know how many chapters there will be but currently I have ideas for 16 with several written but if they stay or not I'm not totally sure and I'm also still working out which ones to post when. These chapters will be more episodic like my Justin and Zach fic and this is so hopefully some of these chapters seem more realistic as the nature of most of these chapters is Clay slowly learning more about Justin and why he has some of his habits. Matt and Lainie will narrate a few chapters that'll be sprinkled throughout. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy and I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out because I still need to decide which of the chapters I have written I want to be next. My best guess is probably Thursday or Friday though as by then I hope to have some of this sorted out.
> 
> Happy reading and let me know what you think in the comments!


End file.
